Haaretz.com All headlines RSS /bloomberg/cmlink/haaretz-com-all-headlines-rss-1.4605102 Thu, 21 Mar 2019 19:14:39https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/trump-it-is-time-for-u-s-to-recognize-israel-s-sovereignty-over-golan-heights-1.7044588
1.7044588Thu, 21 Mar 2019 19:14:39Noa LandauThu, 21 Mar 2019 19:14:42U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Thursday evening to state that it was time the United States recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory it occupied in the 1967 war.

This comes after the U.S. State Department scraped the word "occupied" last week when referring to the Golan Heights in its annual human rights report for 2018. The change, which now reads "Israeli-controlled territory" which strays from the language used by previous administrations.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the move on Twitter as well, thank you the American president for his statement.

A separate section on the West Bank and Gaza Strip also did not refer to those territories as being "occupied" or under "occupation."

A State Department source said in response to the report that "our policy on the Golan Heights has not changed. We retitled the human rights report to refer to the commonly used geographic names of the area the report covers."

Israel captured the Golan Heights, which is populated largely by Druze communities, in 1967 and officially annexed the territory in a 1981 law. The international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the area, but the ongoing conflict in Syria has complicated the matter of ownership. Assad-aligned forces, including Hezbollah and Iran-backed militias, regularly clash with rebel forces on the Syrian side of the de-facto border. The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force oversees the cease-fire line.

Earlier in March, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham visited the Golan Heights alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and revealed plans to work toward American recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/pompeo-bibi-visit-kotel-first-visit-of-u-s-official-to-site-with-israeli-joining-1.7044458
1.7044458Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:55:19Noa LandauThu, 21 Mar 2019 17:55:19U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived on Thursday afternoon for a visit to Jerusalem's Western Wall, where he was accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.

This is the first-ever visit of a top U.S. diplomat to the Western Wall with an accompaniment of an Israeli official.

In the past, most American officials avoided visiting the site because it is considered by the majority of the international community to be situated in a disputed territory that is not under Israeli sovereignty.

Pompeo revealed in briefing to reporters that the trip to the wall "is something I had talked about with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about doing some time ago, and it’s our first chance to go there together. I think it’s important. I think it’s symbolic that a senior American official go there with the prime minister of Israel.

Pompeo's trip there comes amid a stop in Israel as part of the secretary of state's Middle East tour, which started in Kuwait and is expected to end in Beirut later this week.

Speaking to reporters during his trip there, the U.S. secretary of state refused to address a series of questions about a potential American recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights, an area that was annexed by Israel following the 1967 war.

"I'm not going to comment," Pompeo said in response to a question whether U.S. President Donald Trump's administration was mulling the move. "The administration is considering a lot of things always, and I try to make sure we get answers before we talk about them publicly," he explained.

Asked what the administration's position was regarding the West Bank and the Golan Heights after the administration dropped the words "occupied territories" from an annual State Department human rights report, Pompeo responded: "We used that language in the Human Rights Report with great intentionality. We didn't make a mistake. It's there for a reason."

The U.S. secretary of state went on to clarify that this did not mean "a change in U.S. policy." He did stress that "it wasn't a mistake."

Pompeo also touched on the much-awaited peace plan a team spearheaded by Jared Kushner has been toiling on. Asked whether the U.S. will suggest a two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said: "We want the Palestinian people, whether they live in the West Bank or in Gaza or, frankly, Palestinians that live anywhere in the world... we hope they have a brighter future as well."

On Wednesday, Pompeo and Netanyahu convened in Jerusalem, where the he told the prime minister that the region needs "candid dialogue" in order to achieve peace. The two also discussed the Iranian threat, energy and regional issues.

"If Israel wasn't in the Golan Heights, Iran would be in the Kinneret," Netanyahu said during the meeting, and added that it was time to recognize the region as under Israeli sovereignty.

"With a dark wave of anti-Semitism rising in Europe and in the United States, all nations, especially those in the West, must go to the barricades against bigotry," Pompeo said.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/rank-and-file-yisrael-lutnick-gets-biblical-with-rewrite-the-world-1.7044127
1.7044127Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:45:32Steven KleinThu, 21 Mar 2019 17:45:32SHOW OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS: For his company Israel Musicals’ latest production, writer-director Yisrael Lutnick is bringing in a biblical touch with “Rewrite the World.” The show is about a teenager, Aaron Cohen, who sees his parents’ marriage falling apart and ends up drawing inspiration from his biblical namesake, Aaron the High Priest. Lutnick, who hails from Long Island, told Haaretz that audiences connect “to the music first and foremost,” and that “anybody who enjoys stories of the Bible would enjoy it.” He added that it is reminiscent of “Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.”

The cast includes Jensen Greif, Evelyn Inker, Lutnick, Zvi Goldfeld, Alex Falk, Bracha Daniel, Yisrael Levitt, Rivka Deray, Gal Boaron, Asher Halperin and Yossi Mark, who will be singing backup to Kobi Marimi for Israel at Eurovision this May. The show runs Sunday through Tuesday in Jerusalem and will be in Modi’in on March 31. For tickets, visit https://israel-theatre.com/tickets/

THE OTHER SANTA STORY: South African opera diva Aviva Pelham will take to the stage in Herzliya this Monday with the internationally acclaimed show “Santa’s Story,” which is based on the life story of her mother, Santa Pelham. Running through next Thursday, the first two performances are in support of Telfed, the South African Zionist Federation, and Keren Beth Protea, which assists individuals with limited means to live at Beth Protea retirement home.

“The show is the true story of her late mother’s life — she plays her own mother in the show — told through a combination of stirring narrative as well as song and music, including a live three-piece Klezmer band who are also coming from South Africa for the show,” Nicole Trope, community awareness director of Telfed, told Haaretz. Santa fled Nazi Germany, eventually passing through France and Spain en route to Zimbabwe (which was then known as Rhodesia). For tickets, call 09-790-7801.

AN UNLIKELY CONNECTION: Eyal Sherf will combine his talents as a singer, actor, cantor and lecturer on musical theater when he delivers a lecture-concert on “Echoes of the Nazi Threat in ‘The Sound of Music,’ ‘Cabaret’ and ‘The Producers,’” next Thursday at the Khan Theater. “When you think of musical theater, it’s very often perceived as fluff. We don’t really associate the Holocaust with musical theater, but yet when we look at these three musicals you can see the Nazi threat and the Holocaust are somehow present,” he told Haaretz. “If you look at the three as one unit, you see how they mirror the change in American attitudes toward the Holocaust.” Sherf, a graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in England, will alternately show clips from the movies and perform pieces from the shows, accompanied by pianist Alla Danzig. For tickets, call (02) 630-3600.

Rank and File was compiled by Steven Klein.

Have an idea about an item for Rank and File? Email us at: column@haaretz.co.il

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/venezuela-detains-top-aide-to-guaido-in-test-of-trump-s-red-line-1.7044395
1.7044395Thu, 21 Mar 2019 17:06:53ReutersThu, 21 Mar 2019 17:06:53Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido said on Thursday intelligence agents had detained his chief of staff during a pre-dawn raid, putting to the test repeated U.S. warnings that President Nicolas Maduro should not go after his opponents.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a post on Twitter on Thursday, called for Roberto Marrero's immediate release and said "we will hold accountable those involved."

Guaido invoked the constitution in January to assume the interim presidency after declaring Maduro's 2018 re-election a fraud. He has been recognized by the United States and dozens of other Western nations as the country's legitimate leader.

Maduro, who has overseen a dramatic collapse of the OPEC nation's economy, has called Guaido a puppet of the United States and said he should "face justice," but has not explicitly ordered his arrest.

Top U.S. officials have repeatedly warned Maduro not to touch Guaido and his inner circle and threatened ever harsher sanctions intended to further isolate Maduro and cut off his administration's sources of revenue.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton warned Maduro earlier this month that Guaido's safety must be guaranteed and that the world was watching.

"They have kidnapped @Robertomarrero, my chief of staff," Guaido said in a post on Twitter, adding that the Caracas residences of Marrero and opposition legislator Sergio Vergara had been raided before dawn. "We do not know their whereabouts. They should be freed immediately."

Marrero recorded a voice message as agents from the SEBIN intelligence service were trying to enter his home in Caracas' upscale Las Mercedes neighborhood, which Guaido's press team forwarded to reporters.

"I am in my house and the SEBIN is here. Unfortunately, they have come for me. Keep in the fight, don't stop and look after the president," Marrero said.

Vergara, Marrero's neighbor, said some 40 armed SEBIN agents forced their way into their homes and spent three hours inside.

The SEBIN left with Marrero and Vergara's driver, the legislator said in a video posted on his Twitter account.

Guaido's press team also sent a video showing damage to the door of Marrero's home and its broken lock.

Guaido said that Marrero had told Vergara that agents had planted two rifles and a grenade in his house. Venezuela's Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since January, Venezuelan authorities have arrested over 1,000 people in connection with anti-government demonstrations, rights groups say.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday that Venezuelan security forces, backed by pro-government militias, have quashed peaceful protests with the excessive use of force, killings and torture.

Maduro says his government is the victim of an "economic war" led by his political adversaries and blames U.S. financial and oil sector sanctions for the country's situation.

With Washington already having imposed extensive sanctions on Caracas, the humanitarian and political costs of further blanket measures could be high, with millions of Venezuelans already suffering shortages of food and medicine.

Venezuela is reeling from annual inflation topping 2 million percent, which has fueled malnutrition and preventable disease and spurred an exodus of more than 3 million citizens in since 2015.

While President Donald Trump has said all options remain open, there appears to be little support in Washington or regional Latin American capitals for any military intervention.

"The United States condemns raids by Maduro's security services and detention of Roberto Marrero," Pompeo said on Twitter, noting those responsible would be held to account.

Guaido had traveled around South America in February to drum up diplomatic support for his government, defying a travel ban imposed by the pro-government Supreme Court.

He later entered the country via Venezuela's principal airport without being detained by immigration officials.

Venezuela's chief state prosecutor, Tarek Saab, last week asked the Supreme Court to open an investigation into Guaido for alleged involvement in the "sabotage" of the country's electrical network, after the longest nationwide power blackout in decades.

The opposition, along with electrical experts, said the power outage was due to the government's incompetence and years of little maintenance.

I went to see a girl I met after taking part in an Accelerator in San Francisco.

What’s an Accelerator?

It’s when a risk capital fund invests in your startup and then what usually takes a year, happens in three months. There were 17 startups from all over the world, and we were the only ones from Israel.

What’s your startup?

We went through a lot of stages, but now we’re trying to create a platform for programmers that will improve software development ... In developing software, the first stage is investigation. That takes between hours and months. You search a million sites for things you need to write the program. Let’s say I’m going to use cloud service for the first time, so I go to YouTube and watch how it’s done, and then I go to open-source software where the code is, and then to forums, and then, at the end, I choose what to use and how. What we will do is concentrate all this into one page. That’s a significant saving of time – from hours to minutes. Initially we will write the program alone, but the goal is to create a community.

Fine, I even understood part of that. But what about the girl?

After the Accelerator, I wanted to rest, and I got to a city called Tulum, in Mexico. They have the best food in the world there. And I met a local girl who doesn’t even speak English.

How did you communicate?

Google Translate. When I got back to Israel, we stayed in touch via WhatsApp, and now I went back to Mexico for her. We thought we could keep it going.

Doesn’t sound like it’s a happy ending.

It didn’t work out in the end. It was terrific on the first day, but after that it faded. I’m still thinking about moving there, I love the food and people, but now is not the time.

Why not?

Because of my startup. Israel is one of the best places in the world for setting up a community of developers, maybe the best after San Francisco.

Is this your first startup?

I’ve been in high-tech for 14 years. I was a programmer, a team leader and a software architect. I worked at Intel and at Rafael [Advanced Defense Systems], but saw that you have more responsibility with startups, because you create the product from start to finish. I launched my startup in January last year, by myself.

Was it stressful?

At first, family and friends asked, “What are you doing?” – because I gave up a salary of tens of thousands of shekels [a month]. But I have an adventurist personality, and I decided that I would follow my dreams.

And you don’t regret it.

For me there are two things here. One is self-fulfillment, which means knowing I made a positive change in the world, and the second is the spiritual thing. I understood that if I threw myself into something serious, it would advance me spiritually.

And did it?

I do yoga and I go to meditation festivals. It teaches me how to control my thoughts and feelings. And I’m also studying Logosophy. All these things liberated me to live life as I want and not as society dictates.

What’s Logosophy?

Logosophy has two principles that I like. One is that everyone is equal, including me and the teacher; the second is: Don’t believe anything, go check out your life for yourself. Find out how it’s constructed and how to control it.

You used the word “control” twice now. Is that important for you?

It’s important for me to be happy. But I want to say something to sum up, a message.

Go for it.

It’s worth taking a few minutes or even a week to think about what you dreamed about when you were little, what’s happening with you now and how you want to live.

Tal: We met at Midburn. I was a zebra Khaleesi, with a crown on my head, long hair and no shirt.

Maayan: And I was dressed up as a flower or something.

Who started up with whom, what was the opening sentence?

Maayan: “Herzliyans don’t squeeze lemons.”

Classic.

Maayan: We were in the same organizing group and before the event we went to the supermarket to buy things. I had brought lemons and he said, “What’s that?”

Tal: I told her to bring lemon concentrate…

I get it. That leaves Tamar and Ohad.

Tamar: Ohad and I are twice married.

Please elaborate.

Tamar: Two years ago, we were living in London, because Ohad was doing a master’s in political economy. We needed to get married fast so that I could get a work visa. That was the first wedding. We flew to Prague with the parents.

Ohad: At first, we didn’t want them to come.

Tamar: But my mother ordered tickets anyway, she just didn’t care.

Ohad: And in the end, we were very happy that they came.

What was London like?

Ohad: I was like a yeshiva student: While I studied, she worked. You can get used to that.

Tamar: I worked in an architects’ firm.

Ohad: She went there without knowing what London is, and in the end she didn’t want to come back.

So why didn’t you stay on?

Ohad: I had a scholarship, and its condition was that I return to Israel.

What do you do?

Ohad: I work in a strategic consultancy firm. We’re now creating a strategic plan for Be’er Sheva.

I don’t know what that means.

Ohad: Neither do I. (Laughs)

Okay, that was one wedding. And the other was in the rabbinate?

Tamar: We threw a party. You don’t get married in the rabbinate.

I forgot to ask how you met.

Ohad: We met by good fortune through a friend.

Tamar: He came to say goodbye to the friend.

Ohad: I was waiting for my phone to charge, so we started talking.

Tamar: And then he asked if he could have my number, but I didn’t notice.

Ohad: She didn’t answer, and I was this close to saying, “Yallah, bye.”

You really didn’t notice, Tamar?

Tamar: Maybe I needed time to think.

Ohad: It worked. Even though the truth is that her friend had shown me a photo of her a week earlier, and I told her, “No, she’s not my type.”

So how did it happen, in the end?

Ohad: She was there with a friend, both of them very nice and very similar, and I didn’t know which one to start up with at first.

Tamar: And then I said that we’re not alike in terms of our tits.

Ohad: They were both wearing baggy shirts, and I wondered if I’d made the right decision. (Both laugh) But I chose well.

Tamar: He chose well.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/science/.premium.MAGAZINE-in-photos-israel-wakes-up-to-wave-of-butterflies-1.7044005
1.7044005Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:50:47Zafrir RinatThu, 21 Mar 2019 16:50:47Painted ladies are swarming in Israel and it's not because of Purim. These are butterflies and they are migrating from Africa northwards in their hundreds of millions. Look out your window from the Negev to the north and you will likely see some, especially if you live on the coast.

Native to temperate zones, the painted lady (Vanessa cardui) has erratic migration habits but generally can be trusted to move en masse in the spring, and sometimes after the summer as well, from North Africa through the Middle East and Israel to Europe.

Dubi Binyamini, head of the Israeli Lepidopterists Society, says his Cypriot counterparts are already eagerly awaiting the arrival of the insect. From that island the swarm will continue onto Turkey, he said, from where it will proceed onwards.

The painted ladies do get about. The Worldwide Painted Lady Migration organization of scientists and butterfly fans detected movement from Iceland to south of the Sahara. Their migration route can be even longer than that of the monarch butterfly, Binyamini observes.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/death-toll-climbs-at-syrian-camp-1.7044328
1.7044328Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:42:52ReutersThu, 21 Mar 2019 16:42:52Twelve people died overnight after arriving at a camp in northeastern Syria from Islamic State's final enclave at Baghouz, the International Rescue Committee said on Thursday.

"Last night, another 2,000 women and children arrived at al-Hol camp in northeast Syria from Baghouz. Up to 60 arrivals needed immediate hospitalisation and there were another 12 deaths recorded," IRC said in a statement.

"These women and children are in the worst condition we have seen since the crisis first began. Many have been caught up in the fighting and dozens have been burnt or badly injured by shrapnel," Wendy Taeuber, IRC’s Iraq and northeast Syria country director, said in the statement.

"There have now been at least 138 deaths on the way to al Hol or soon after arriving at the camp since early December. The deaths have overwhelmingly been of babies and infants," IRC said.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-trump-israel-ilhan-omar-jewish-vote-1.7038882
1.7038882Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:31:35Alexander GriffingThu, 21 Mar 2019 16:31:37Just three months into the Democrats controlling the House, President Donald Trump has already declared that “Democrats hate Jewish people” and is now actively pushing the so-called Jexodus movement, which claims to be aimed at converting Jewish Democrats into Jewish Republicans.

At CPAC in late February, a former Jewish Trump campaign adviser, who recently called Ilhan Omar “filth,” launched the Jexodus movement. A few weeks later, the group’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Pipko, went on “Fox & Friends” and claimed that “Jewish people are leaving the Democratic Party. We saw a lot of anti-Israel policies start under the Obama Administration, and it got worse and worse. There is anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party. They don’t care about Israel or the Jewish people.” Trump immediately tweeted Pipko’s statement.

One problem: There is no proof for the claim that “Jewish people are leaving the Democratic Party.”

In the 2018 midterms, a full 79 percent of Jewish Americans voted for Democrats (up 13 percent since the 2014 midterm elections). A Gallup poll released last week found that only one in six Jewish Americans formally identify as Republicans, while 52 percent identify as Democrats (down from 55 percent in 2008). The same poll noted that out of all religious groups, Jewish Americans were the least likely to approve of Trump, with 71 percent disapproving and only 26 percent approving.

Many Americans Jews have not forgotten Trump’s embrace of white nationalists, his “good people on both sides” comments after Charlottesville or his long history of coded racial language — including telling the Republican Jewish Coalition that they won’t vote for him because he won’t take their money.

Despite media warnings that a "new wave" of Democrats like Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would finally split the party’s long-held support of Israel and alienate some Jewish voters, it didn’t happen. Additionally, Trump’s popularity in Israel, his close relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital only seemed to lose the Republican Party Jewish voters in the 2018 midterms.

Republicans have tried to win over the Jewish vote before. Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign was by far the most successful in 2012, winning 30 percent of the Jewish vote, compared to John McCain’s 21 percent or Trump’s 24 percent. Romney campaigned heavily against Barack Obama’s foreign policy and his Iran nuclear deal, which had enraged both Israeli leadership and the Gulf Arab states. This likely resonated with the 31 percent of Jewish Americans that a 2014 Pew Research Center poll found wanted to see the U.S. support Israel more.

Romney, a devout Mormon, also appealed to Jewish voters as a member of a religious minority. Unlike Trump, he courted evangelical Christians but didn’t couple his support of Israel with Christian Zionism or embrace Christian leaders who have offended Jews. This also worked in his favor, since many American Jews find Christian Zionism and evangelical support of Israel to be incompatible with their Zionism and a betrayal of their liberal values.

The Republican Party, despite its best efforts at Jewish outreach, has a long history of pushing Jews out of its ranks. Sam Brownback, currently serving as Trump’s religious freedom envoy, won the 1996 Kansas Senate election in a race that drew national scrutiny for a robocall that said, “We think it’s important for people to know that Jill Docking [Brownback’s opponent] is Jewish. Please vote for Sam Brownback.”

In 2006, Virginia Sen. George Allen vehemently denied a report that his mother was Jewish, insinuating it was a slur. He later confirmed the report was true. These are just a few examples, not to mention the slew of white nationalists, neo-Confederates and even a self-proclaimed actual Nazi (who was disavowed by the GOP) who were running on the ballot as Republicans last November.

However, it’s very unlikely that Trump’s true aim is to win the Jewish vote. It’s of little real electoral importance to him, and it’s all but certain that he will not attract many new Jewish voters into his ranks. His real goals are to try to brand the Democratic Party as an unacceptable choice in 2020, while attempting to absolve himself and the more extreme elements around him of accusations of anti-Semitism and bigotry.

An issue to tip the scales

Trump has been looking for a new wedge issue for the 2020 election campaign. Immigration and the border wall have become too toxic and he clearly has his eyes set on Israel, anti-Semitism and the Jews. In his State of the Union address, the president insisted the United States would never become a socialist country — a veiled attack on the Bernie Sanders-supporting wing of the Democratic Party.

Now he and congressional Republicans have abandoned that line of attack, choosing instead to focus on Minnesota’s Rep. Ilhan Omar. Trump this week even went so far as to tweet his support for Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who was apparently suspended for an Islamophic attack on Omar and her hijab.

Trump lost the popular vote by almost 3 million ballots and has never had a net favorability rating during his presidency. He and his 2020 campaign advisers undoubtedly know that his best chance for re-election is to run against an equally polarizing candidate. Just as Harry Truman dubbed the Republicans the “Do Nothing Congress” in 1948 and went on to defeat Thomas Dewey in a major upset, Trump too knows his best chance is a symbolic opponent. So far, he’s choosing the “anti-Semitic, anti-Israel Congress.”

Even among liberal Democrats, Israel still has a 58 percent favorability rating — and 87 percent favorability among conservative Republicans. However, only 3 percent of liberal Democrats view Israelis more favorably than the Palestinians in the conflict. This is an all-time low, but independent voters still favor Israel’s side over the Palestinians by 60 percent. In the current divisive era of American politics, Israel is one of the few consensus issues left.

Trump and the Republican Party clearly want to change that — at least so far as Republican voters are concerned. A separate Gallup poll released earlier this month shows that Americans overwhelmingly favor Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite that number falling to a 10-year low, the GOP is still gearing up to use that popularity to pull independent voters in its direction.

The strategy is also a time-tested ploy to energize the party’s evangelical base, 46 percent of which wanted the U.S. to do more to support Israel in 2014 —– by far the highest number of any religious group. While the most vehement anti-Israel activists in American politics reside within the Democrats’ wide coalition, Trump and the conservative media machine want to make sure their voices are as loud as they can be.

‘Jexodus’

When Chelsea Clinton was shouted down by pro-Palestinian activists and accused of inspiring the New Zealand massacre over the weekend, Donald Trump, Jr. quickly came to her defense. “It’s sickening to see people blame @ChelseaClinton for the NZ attacks because she spoke out against anti-Semitism. We should all be condemning anti-Semitism & all forms of hate,” he tweeted.

The reason Trump, Jr., who is not known for his civility on social media, so quickly came to Clinton’s defense is also why House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney repeatedly compared Omar’s controversial statements on Israel to the white supremacist remarks made by Iowa’s Republican Rep. Steve King last week: They think it’s a winning narrative. McCarthy even went so far as to say Omar’s comments were worse than King’s remarks.

Trump’s entrance into the conversation changes the debate over Omar and anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party, and for many on the American left creates a need to refocus the debate on Trump and absolve Omar. However, author and political commentator Prof. John Pitney points out that “the danger for Democrats comes not from Trump, but from within their own ranks, and the anti-Semitism issue is part of a larger problem.”

Trump’s strategy to politicize Israel and demonize Omar boxes the Democrats into a difficult corner. The top tier 2020 candidates are already split over Omar, with Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris showing support, while Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker are leveling criticism.

Going forward, the party’s leadership will have to choose between actively rebuking Trump’s narrative and their own progressive stars or risk alienating crucial swing voters in the middle. “Given a choice between two extreme parties, these voters might stay home in November 2020, which could result in a Trump victory,” Pitney warns.

How all of this plays out is not about whether American Jews stay in the Democratic Party, but whether or not American politics still has a place for liberal, pro-Israel voters.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/pro-israel-donor-pulls-out-of-aipac-conference-after-attacking-omar-tlaib-1.7041194
1.7041194Thu, 21 Mar 2019 16:31:04JTA וRon KampeasThu, 21 Mar 2019 16:31:06Adam Milstein, a major pro-Israel funder, has withdrawn from speaking at the annual AIPAC policy conference following a series of tweets in which he accused two Muslim lawmakers of clashing with “American values.”

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee distanced itself from Milstein.

Milstein, the chairman of the Israeli American Council, said his views as expressed on Twitter had been “mischaracterized.”

“My social media postings represent my views — and my views alone,” Milstein said in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I have no interest in allowing this mischaracterization of me to distract from the important work of AIPAC. For this reason, I will not be moderating a panel at this year’s AIPAC Policy Conference.”

Milstein had been slated to moderate a panel on anti-Semitism at the conference next week.

AIPAC’s spokesman, Marshall Wittmann, said Milstein’s views were not those of the lobby.

>> Analysis: AIPAC conference was going to be all about the Benjamin — then Ilhan Omar came along ■ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says AIPAC is coming after her, Ilhan Omar and Tlaib. It’s not

“Mr. Milstein is not a representative of AIPAC and his views are not ours,” Wittmann said in an email.

Milstein’s family foundation has donated to AIPAC’s affiliate, the American Israel Educational Foundation, as well as a number of pro-Israel and Jewish groups.

Milstein’s tweets, highlighted among others by staffers for J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, come after one of his targets, Rep. Ilhan Omar was accused of invoking dual loyalty slanders in discussing the pro-Israel movement’s influence.

In a flurry of tweets Monday, Milstein sought to connect Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib to the Muslim Brotherhood, citing little or no evidence.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is now part of Congress,” one tweet said. “New Reps. like @IlhanMN @RashidaTlaib are known as #AntiSemitic and Anti #Israel. Moreover, they both are representatives of #CAIR and #MuslimBrotherhood and their values clash with American values.”

The tweet linked to a site that did not offer any evidence Omar or Tlaib were allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group affiliated with Hamas, the terrorist group controlling the Gaza Strip.

Two tweets urge followers to sign a petition calling on Attorney General William Barr and Elan Carr, the State Department envoy monitoring anti-Semitism, to “investigate #Hamas affiliated #CAIR’s Ties in U.S. Congress.” Carr reports on anti-Semitism abroad and not in the United States, and has no investigatory powers.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has hosted events for Tlaib and Omar. The Anti-Defamation League, reporting on the group, says of CAIR that “much of its activity” is in exposing anti-Muslim bias, but this is undermined by an anti-Israel agenda. A founder of the group, Nihad Awad, in 1994 expressed support for Hamas, and a founder of its Dallas chapter was convicted in a scheme to fundraise for the terrorist group. For years the group has denied ties with Hamas and points out that Niwad and CAIR have condemned Hamas terrorist actions since 2006.

Both Tlaib and Omar have embraced the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, to different degrees. Omar has caused tensions in the House Democratic caucus with statements perceived as invoking anti-Semitic slanders, including claiming that she felt pressured to pledge “allegiance” to Israel. She has apologized for some of the statements, and a congressional resolution overwhelmingly approved earlier this month condemned anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and particularly the invocation of dual loyalty.

Milstein retweeted a video claiming that Omar “admitted” to taking “terrorism classes.” In the video, she is referring to classes on terrorism that she took at North Dakota State University when she obtained a political science degree.

In his statement, which he provided on the condition that JTA post it in full, Milstein insisted that his tweets did not target Muslims per se.

“My tweet today, which shared news articles and social media postings that others wrote about CAIR and Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, has been used to mischaracterize me and my views,” he said.

“Let me be clear. I believe that America as a country is made stronger by our diversity and deep commitment to freedom of speech, tolerance and religious pluralism. Whether you are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, or Hindu, I believe that Americans of all faiths should not have their loyalty questioned. I believe that our country is stronger when people of all backgrounds and faiths are represented in public life. It’s specifically because of these beliefs that I continue to speak out against CAIR as an organization, and against Representatives Omar and Tlaib, who have long been associated with this extreme and patently intolerant group, which has a well-documented track record of spreading anti-Semitism and fundraising for the Hamas terrorist organization.”

In 2017, Milstein apologized for tweeting an anti-Semitic image of the liberal Jewish philanthropist George Soros.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-the-secret-order-that-inspired-the-plot-on-hitler-s-life-1.7044129
1.7044129Thu, 21 Mar 2019 15:44:06Ofri IlanyThu, 21 Mar 2019 15:44:06On Friday, July 21, 1944, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, the Wehrmacht officer who led the attempt to assassinate Hitler, was executed in Berlin. A day earlier, on Thursday afternoon, he had placed a briefcase containing a bomb under the table in the conference room of the “Wolf’s Lair” in East Prussia, where General Staff meetings were held with Hitler’s participation. The bomb exploded, but the blast wasn’t powerful enough to kill the Fuehrer, who was lightly wounded and able to carry on with his regular schedule. Stauffenberg fled with an aide, but was arrested in Berlin and executed by firing squad. Eyewitnesses related that before being shot he shouted, “Long live sacred Germany!” According to a different version, he called out, “Long live secret Germany!” The two words have a similar ring in German, so it’s difficult to decide on the basis of the surviving testimonies. And, as will become apparent, the difference is highly consequential.

Earlier this month, a new biography of Stauffenberg, by the journalist Thomas Karlauf, was published in Germany. Stauffenberg, the most senior German figure to attempt to kill Hitler, has been the subject of many books and films, including the 2008 Hollywood saga “Operation Valkyrie,” in which he was played by Tom Cruise. Karlauf’s biography presents the July 20 conspirators in a rather unflattering light. In contrast to other authors, who maintain that Stauffenberg was motivated by moral considerations and wanted to put a stop to the regime’s crimes, the new book plays up flaws in the character and motivations of the mysterious officer.

According to Karlauf, Stauffenberg, who was from an old noble family, belonged to aristocratic circles that abhorred the Weimar Republic’s democracy. Following the Nazis’ rise to power, he supported the regime’s rearmament and expansion efforts, and when the war erupted he longed to serve on any front – Poland, France, the Soviet Union and North Africa. He felt repulsion for the Polish population and espoused ant-Semitic views, albeit not extreme ones. These points are largely known and have been published in the past. But precisely the fact that Stauffenberg was no different from other senior Germans with a similar profile, renders more acute the question of what made him, of all people, decide to carry out the act. Why was he ready to risk death and, no less serious from his perspective, to violate his oath of allegiance as an officer?

That question is the hub of Karlauf’s book. He emphasizes Stauffenberg’s determination to go ahead with the assassination even when he knew that a catastrophic German defeat in the war was unavoidable. In the conspirators’ original plan, a different general, Helmuth Stieff, was supposed to carry out the actual act. But when the opportunity arose, on July 7, Stieff got cold feet. Stauffenberg thereupon decided to kill Hitler by himself, even though he was disabled: a year earlier, he had lost an eye, his right hand and two fingers of his left hand in an Allied bombing raid during the campaign in Tunisia. The wounds limited the size of the bomb he was able to plant.

There were many officers in the Wehrmacht who loathed Hitler, yet Stauffenberg was the only one who displayed determination to kill the Fuehrer at any price. Karlauf offers an explanation for that determination. He argues that Stauffenberg was loyal to a secretive order to which he had belonged since his adolescence: the “Secret Germany” circle of the poet Stefan George. That also explains his peculiar last words before his death. That Stauffenberg was affiliated with George’s coterie is a well-known fact, but no previous biography has placed so much emphasis on George’s importance to the assassination attempt. According to Karlauf, the elitist poet, who had died a decade earlier, was nevertheless the “spiritual father” of the act.

Poetic messiah

Stefan George is known today mostly to scholars of German literature. In the first decades of the 20th century, in certain circles in Germany, he was considered a kind of poetic messiah of the type who appears once in a thousand years. He gathered young poets around him in Munich and created an isolated group that shunned the world’s vanities. The acolytes were expected to abstain from relations with women and devote themselves to reading Plato and Dante. George tended to prefer boys of noble lineage and attractive appearance. Claus von Stauffenberg and his brother, Berthold, met both criteria.

The ideal that linked the followers of the circle to the poet-leader was known as “pedagogic eros.” Karlauf, one of whose earlier books was a biography of George, maintained that the relations in the group could be considered exploitation of authority. This homoerotic circle also had a political ideology.

Stefan George was contemptuous of democracy and modernity. He attributed a fateful role to the German people and forecast the establishment of a “New Reich,” an idea that was adopted by the Nazis. His aim was to revive in Germany the aesthetic of classical Greece and form a society led by an elect class of geniuses. Accordingly, he extolled the determined hero who does not hesitate to take action even at the price of risking his life.

When George died in Switzerland, in 1933, the circle around him scattered. A few of his followers were Jews who, despite their loyalty to German culture, were compelled to go into exile in all parts of the globe. Others, like the philosopher Ludwig Klages, became ardent Nazis. But the brothers Stauffenberg harbored a rarefied self-regard and spurned anything that smacked of vulgarity and crudity. As such, they came to detest the mass, screeching character of Nazism and its ruling riffraff.

In Stauffenberg’s perception, only the elect individuals from the “Secret Germany” circles were worthy of devoting themselves to action. Like the tyrant slayers Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who assassinated the government minister Hipparchus in 6th century B.C.E. Greece, only they were worthy of saving Germany and the whole of Europe from the modern tyrant. According to Ulrich Raulff, who also wrote a book on George’s legacy, Stauffenberg was driven by “aesthetic morality” in the assassination – which, in this sense, was a kind of work of art.

Stauffenberg and George might seem to be figures from the remote past. But in our time, too, when tyrants are again rearing their head around the world, the episode is relevant. Though Karlauf sought to emphasize the famous assassin’s antidemocratic views, a different lesson can be drawn from the story: the assumption that the masses aspire to freedom often proves a disappointment. An uprising against a dictator needn’t necessarily take the form of a popular revolt by the oppressed. In some cases, the act of resistance will have its genesis in the mind of an individual from the privileged class, who read Plato at the right age.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/jewish-american-philanthropist-michael-steinhardt-accused-of-pattern-of-harrassment-1.7044039
1.7044039Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:37:35HaaretzThu, 21 Mar 2019 14:37:35Billionaire philanthropist Michael Steinhardt, co-founder of Birthright Israel and one of the most influential megadonors in the Jewish world, has been accused of a “pattern of sexual harrassment,” according to a report in the New York Times Thursday.

The report details accusations from seven women (six in interviews and one in a lawsuit) who allege that Steinhardt used his professional and financial relationship with them as means to pressure them for sex.

The paper reported that "Deborah Mohile Goldberg worked for Birthright Israel, a nonprofit co-founded by Mr. Steinhardt, when he asked her if she and a female colleague would like to join him in a threesome, she said."

The Times also quoted Natalie Goldfein, who was an officer at a small nonprofit that Mr. Steinhardt had helped establish. She said that Steinhardt "suggested in a meeting that they have babies together."

The Times reported that “through a spokesman, Mr. Steinhardt denied many of the specific actions or words attributed to him by the seven women.”

The New York Times report said Steinhardt also "regularly made comments to women about their bodies and their fertility, according to the seven women and 16 other people who said they were present when Mr. Steinhardt made such comments."

Steinhardt was reported to be under investigation in September 2018 for unwelcome “inappropriate sexual remarks” by two female employees of one of the many organizations he supports.

The investigation into the 78-year-old former hedge fund investor's behavior was launched by Hillel International: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, according to a report in The New York Jewish Week.

The Jewish Week story quoted “sources close to the investigation” as saying that since 2015, when the first complaint by a female employee occurred, it has been a “practice” within the organization for no female employee to have meetings with Steinhardt alone.

The report noted that Hillel had “quietly” removed Steinhardt's name from the board of governors listed on their website while the organization was investigating the claims. The article also quoted “sources within the organization” as saying that Hillel would not be cooperating with a plan to use a $50,000 grant from the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life to support a fellowship for staffing Hillel branches at campuses around the country, in what appeared to be an additional distancing of the organization from Steinhardt.

Sheila Katz was a young executive at Hillel International when she was sent to visit Steinhardt. She told the New York Times that "in her first encounter" with the philanthropist, "he asked her repeatedly if she wanted to have sex with him."

Katz, 35, told the paper that “Institutions in the Jewish world have long known about his behavior, and they have looked the other way. No one was surprised when I shared that this happened,” she said.

Several of the women quoted in the Times story said that they had reported and discussed Steinhardt’s problematic behavior with the Jewish organizations they worked for, but that it was repeatedly dismissed or brushed aside by their bosses.

The Times said that a spokesman for Steinhardt denied some of the behavior outlined in the article, and that Steinhardt himself, in a statement, admitted making bad jokes “that were boorish, disrespectful, and just plain dumb.”

His comments, Steinhardt said, were part of his “schtick” and he apologized for them. “I fully understand why they were inappropriate. I am sorry,” he said.

None of the women in the story, which was reported by both the Times and ProPublica, accused him of inappropriate physical contact, and Steinhardt strenuously denied crossing that line, saying: “In my nearly 80 years on Earth, I have never tried to touch any woman or man inappropriately.”

Steinhardt, who has been described as "Wall Street's greatest trader," was assessed by Forbes as being worth $1.05 billion in 2017. Since the mid-90s, he has devoted most of his time and attention to his philanthropic pursuits — because, he told Forbes in 2014, "I thought there must be something more virtuous, more ennobling to do with one's life than make rich people richer."

Steinhardt’s contribution to American Jewish life has had an impact both in terms of the millions he has donated and in how philanthropy is conceived. A pioneer of the concept that major philanthropists in the American Jewish world create their own projects rather than work through established Jewish organizations, he has not shied away of criticizing the way that existing Jewish organizations functioned, particularly in the field of Jewish education.

He is best known as a co-founder of Birthright Israel, the 10-day free trip that has become a central pillar of American Jewish life, and to which he has donated over $25 million. He is also the creator of a network of Hebrew-language charter schools.

In 2017, Steinhardt made history when he was chosen as one of two Diaspora Jews to light an official torch at the Israel Independence Day ceremony.

Last April, Steinhardt made headlines when he clashed with anti-occupation protesters demonstrating in front of a Birthright Israel gala, and was photographed giving them “the finger” as he exited his car. In an interview later, he called the demonstrators “left-wing, stupid young Jews.”

Steinhardt and the other founders of Birthright have been criticized in the past for remarks that appeared to encourage both romance and sexual encounters during the trips as a way of promoting Jewish continuity, even offering free honeymoons and other incentives to couples who had gotten together through the program.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-he-said-xi-said-is-trump-sending-the-world-into-recession-1.7044012
1.7044012Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:28:56David RosenbergThu, 21 Mar 2019 14:28:56If you take the U.S. stock market as a serious barometer of the American economy, then you’ve got nothing to worry about.

The S&P 500 index sank in the last quarter of 2018, but recovered most of its losses this year and the bulls are in the ascent. And on Wednesday, Wall Street got more good news from the Fed, which promised that interest rates would remain on hold for the rest of the year. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell even said the U.S. economy is in a "good place" and that the outlook is "positive."

Investors are so averse to higher interest rates that they seem they quite willing to avoid asking the obvious question, which is: If everything is going so swimmingly, why is the Fed suddenly becoming so cautious? Is the U.S. going to keep on enjoying an orangey-locks economy, a Trump-era version of a Goldilocks economy of low inflation and high growth?

Worrying data has hit the headlines recently, including declining new home sales and manufacturing output in America. Elsewhere, there’s growing evidence that the Chinese economic growth is wilting and Europe is moving toward a recession.

None of these are so decisive as to worry the stock market, or for that matter the general economic consensus. Even as it warned of risks that “tilt to the downside,” the International Monetary Fund trimmed its forecast for global growth in January to 3.5% from a previous 3.7%. But it left its forecast for the U.S. at 2.5% and only seems some winding down in 2020. Most metrics still look positive.

As the U.S. goes

Yet not everyone is on the same page. Robert Shiller, the Nobel Prize winning economist, estimates that the probability of an American recession in the next 18 months is one-third to one-half chance of a recession. A poll by the National Association for Business Economics sees a 10% chance of recession in the U.S. this year and a 42% chance in 2020. UBS’ model for the American economy showed a massive jump in March in the risk of a contraction to 75%, three times its December level.

As the U.S. goes, so goes the world. China may get huge amounts of attention for its long growth spurt and role as the world’s factory, but the U.S. economy is bigger and its global links give magnify its raw GDP weighting.

Just ask Iran, which is sinking under sanctions unilaterally imposed by the U.S. alone. When America talks, the world listens, and when America goes into a recession, the world doesn’t have much with which to resist it.

Shiller admits he isn’t very confident about his prediction, and the reason is that human behavior is so unpredictable. He doesn’t mention any humans in particular, but I can think of at least two, whose personalities could lead the world down the recession path.

It’s not that they can do it single-handedly, but given the global slowdown already underway, high levels of debt in sensitive places like China and U.S. corporations, and paucity of tools left for governments to cope with a downturn, the missteps of those two humans could be fatal.

The first is, of course, Donald Trump. The tax cuts he engineered have artificially extended the sell-by date for America’s economic expansion. But their effect is rapidly winding down and isn’t at all clear what could replace it except for the Fed to keep interest rates low -- another strategy that can only delay, not prevent, the pain.

Meantime, Trump’s trade war with China hasn’t proven as easy to win as the president promised. It is taking a toll on the Chinese economy, as expected, but it also hurting the U.S., perhaps even more. With a divided Congress and Trump’s predilection for partisan fighting, a Trump White House would have a hard time rallying Congress to undertake counter-recessionary measures.

The second human is Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who presides over the world’s No. 2 economy. Beijing has engineered the Chinese economy out of slowdowns before, most notably during the 2008 financial crisis, and is taking measures now amid signs that growth is slowing -- and probably slowing by more than the official figures show.

Beijing’s track record and the fact that the Chinese press isn’t allowed to delve into the deliberations of top leaders, their disagreements and mistakes give the impression that Chinese leaders are smarter than they are and that they will succeed again. The stakes are high.

A big downturn would break the rules of the game in China where ordinary citizens are supposed to play the role of consumers looking forward to a pay raise and an even nicer overseas holiday year after year, in exchange for letting the leaders run the country. Xi has increased the stakes even more in the game by amassing so much power and creating a personality cult around himself.

Unlike Trump, Xi wouldn’t be sent back to the penthouse from whence he came in the next election. Xi’s choices are to succeed in keeping the Chinese economy growing or risk social unrest with unpredictable consequences. That means he may well make desperate, dumb decisions – which will lead China into the recession that he desperately wants to avoid.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-family-of-slain-palestinian-says-israeli-military-shot-him-in-cold-blood-1.7043981
1.7043981Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:15:01Yotam Berger, Yaniv Kubovich וJack KhouryThu, 21 Mar 2019 14:15:01The family of Ahmed Jamal Manasra, who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers on Wednesday, claims the shooting took place without a reason. “All the testimonies and circumstances attest that Ahmed was murdered in cold blood,” one of his relatives told Haaretz.

The Israeli army said, however, that it is looking into the possibility that the event leading to the gunfire had been "friction between Palestinians, that included rock-throwing.”

According to the Israeli army, inquiry into the incident found that a soldier stationed in an intersection next to the West Bank city of Bethlehem observed a person throwing rocks at cars, and followed procedure to arrest him, which ended in the gunfire. "As a result of the gunfire, the suspect was killed and another Palestinian wounded," the military said.

>> 'Endless trip to hell': Israel jails hundreds of Palestinian boys a year. These are their testimonies

A relative of Manasra’s told Haaretz that he had been shot for no reason while helping his family, which had been involved in an accident at the southern entrance to Bethlehem.

The relative added that claiming Manasra had been throwing rocks was beyond bizarre, “and the sheer fact that the army says it will investigate attests to the fact that their version of events is problematic. The question is whether the soldier who shot [him] will pay the price if it turns out that Ahmed’s blood was spilled for no reason.”

Even before his death, Palestinian groups in the West Bank called for a “day of rage” this coming Friday, after three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces overnight Tuesday. Two were shot after throwing explosive devices at soldiers guarding Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus. The third was suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting attack this week and was shot north of Ramallah.

On Wednesday, Fatah called for a day of mourning over the three deaths and on Wednesday night, after Manasra was shot, a general strike was called in Bethlehem.

Hamas has meanwhile announced a giant protest next Friday, to mark the anniversary of the protests on the border with Israel. On Wednesday night the army announced the arrest of an unarmed Palestinian near the border fence, and earlier, Palestinian sources said Israeli jets were attacking people flying incendiary balloons in the eastern part of Gaza. The IDF did not confirm the report.

Also on Wednesday, 14 Palestinians were mildly injured by rubber-tipped bullets and tear gas in a demonstration by the Beit El checkpoint, and another protest is scheduled for Thursday in Ramallah.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/radicalized-egyptian-vendor-stabs-jewish-colleagues-in-amsterdam-market-1.7043920
1.7043920Thu, 21 Mar 2019 14:01:00JTA וCnaan LiphshizThu, 21 Mar 2019 14:01:00A Jewish father and son were stabbed at an iconic street marketplace in Amsterdam by an Egypt-born seller whom they and others said was a radicalized Muslim.

Martin Colmans, the father, and son Sharon sustained light to moderate injuries in the attack Saturday at the Albert Cuyp market, where the Colmans family has been selling furniture for decades. Sharon Colmans, whose mother is from Israel, was injured in his back, chest and arm, and suffered serious blood loss. Both have been released from the hospital.

A police spokesperson told De Telegraaf that they have no comment about the assailant’s alleged motives.

Known locally as Tarik, the alleged stabber has been selling hookahs and other smoking paraphernalia adjacent to the Colmans’ furniture shop since 2004. The stabber, who has not been named in the Dutch media, is under arrest awaiting an indictment.

Martin Colmans told De Telegraaf that the suspect had been away for several months, and that when he returned his behavior had changed. He said Tarik was “reading the Koran a lot, stopped talking to us. Shaved his head. Prayed all the time. He also began giving us nasty looks.”

He had threatened a fellow seller, a Moroccan man who is not Jewish, with a knife recently, sellers told De Telegraaf of Tarik.

Asked whether he believes the assault was an anti-Semitic incident, Colmans told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “I don’t know, but he behaved very strangely to us in recent weeks.” Colmans also said he was “happy that we are alive” because Tarik seemed determined to kill them.

Tarik used a large knife in a stabbing that was filmed by passers-by. Fellow sellers, two men from Morocco, prevented him from inflicting further injuries. Tarik went back into his store, where police took him into custody, according to De Telegraaf.

He had had several disputes with fellow sellers, including the Colmans, before the incident, according to De Telegraaf. Tarik and the Colmans made up with help from market bosses and were back on speaking terms when the attack happened, Colmans said.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-israeli-students-overwhelmingly-back-gantz-s-party-in-mock-elections-1.7043907
1.7043907Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:59:09Judy MaltzThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:59:09The election results are in and it’s a knockout victory for Kahol Lavan, the centrist party headed by former army chief Benny Gantz ... well, at least among Israeli teens.

The brand new party beat out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud in 20 out of 24 high schools that participated in a special month-long election project meant to initiate young Israelis into the voting process.

Out of the total number of votes cast in mock elections at these schools, Kahol Lavan captured 43 percent of the vote. Trailing way behind was Likud with 21 percent. Even further behind in third place, with 7 percent of the vote, was Meretz, the left-wing party that is hovering around the electoral threshold in polls conducted among voting-age Israelis.

Next in line were the Labor Party (6 percent), the center-right Kulanu (5 percent) and two right-wing parties — Yisrael Beiteinu and Zehut — each with 4 percent. Zehut, a party that came out of nowhere and champions a weird combination of West Bank settlement expansion and pot legalization, has emerged as the favored party among some hipsters.

Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked’s Hayamin Hehadash, a new right-wing party that split away from the Orthodox Habayit Hayehudi, won only 3 percent of the vote.

Based on these mock election results, Gantz would have no problem forming the next government: Together with what are seen as his natural partners — Meretz and Labor — he would have a majority of 56 percent of the vote (which would translate into about 67 seats).

More than 15,000 students participated in the mock election project, organized and supervised by the Israeli news site Mako, in cooperation with Sky Productions, an event planning company.

The project did not include any Jewish religious or Arab high schools. That could explain why the religious and Arab parties all received less than 1 percent of the vote in these schools, which is not a true reflection of their strength among voting-age Israelis as a whole.

Recent polls show that the race between Likud and Kahol Lavan is very tight, with Kahol Lavan enjoying a small lead (although in the past week, at least two polls have put Likud ahead). According to the polls, Gantz would have an extremely difficult time hammering together a coalition, even if his party is bigger than Likud. That’s because the religious parties have said they will not join his governing coalition and he has ruled out inviting the Arab parties to join his coalition.

In 1977, the results of a mock election at Blich high school in Ramat Gan predicted the first ever victory by the right-wing Likud party. It has become tradition ever since for news outlets and pollsters to return to this particular high school outside of Tel Aviv before every election.

Blich’s own mock election earlier this month (held independently of the Mako project) also brought a decisive victory for Gantz’s party: Kahol Lavan received 41 percent of the vote there, way ahead of Likud (21 percent), Meretz (10 percent), and both Kulanu and Zehut (7 percent).

The idea that young Israelis are good predictors of general voting trends prompted the Mako project, which was first launched several elections ago. The voting age in Israel is 18, so some of the 12th-graders who voted in the mock elections organized by Mako will be voting in the real election on April 9.

One of the more surprising results this year was that Benny Gantz was defeated by Netanyahu on his own turf. At the mock election held at a high school in Rosh Ha’ayin, which Gantz’s son attends and where the prime ministerial hopeful lives with his family, Likud won 24 percent of the vote, while Hosen L’Yisrael — the name of Gantz’s party before he merged with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid — won only 21 percent. But since Yesh Atid took 39 percent there, the bottom line was still a Kahol Lavan win.

In general, Kahol Lavan performed strongest in high schools located in affluent neighborhoods and towns, as did Meretz. In some of these high schools, Meretz even outdid Likud.

In Nes Tziona, which is often seen as a bellwether for how the country will vote, Golda High School also backed Kahol Lavan, giving the party 44 percent of the vote. Likud was a very distant second (15 percent), followed by Hayamin Hehadash (10 percent) and Zehut (9 percent).

Kahol Lavan suffered its most devastating defeat in the West Bank settlement of Ariel. At that local high school, Kahol Lavan won only 5 percent of the vote, compared with 29 percent for Likud. The other big winners at the settlement were Zehut (23 percent) and Tzomet (21 percent) – a party headed by Oren Hazan, a former Likudnik notorious for his inflammatory rhetoric.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-gets-it-wrong-isis-is-down-but-not-defeated-1.7043974
1.7043974Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:58:55The Associated PressThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:58:55In a campaign that spanned five years and two U.S. presidencies, unleashed more than 100,000 bombs and killed untold numbers of civilians, the U.S. military engineered the destruction of the Islamic State group’s self-proclaimed empire in Iraq and Syria.

That’s a military success, but not necessarily one that will last.

The Islamic State group is down, but it is not done.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday flashed a color-coded map to illustrate what he called the imminent demise of ISIS in its last speck of Syrian territory. At its peak, in 2014-15, it controlled an area the size of Britain across Syria and Iraq and launched a series of extremist attacks around the world.

His suggestion of finality for the anti-ISIS struggle, however, seemed premature.

If history is a guide, the reconquering of ISIS-held territory may prove a short-lived victory unless Iraq and Syria fix the problem that gave rise to the extremist movement in the first place: governments that pit one ethnic or sectarian group against another.

The U.S. military has been through this scenario before. In 2001, after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, ousted the ruling Taliban regime in a matter of weeks and installed Hamid Karzai as the country’s leader. The war seemed over. But the Taliban regrouped while Washington shifted its attention to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, and by 2009 the top U.S. commander in Kabul was calling the war a stalemate.

The U.S. military is still in Afghanistan amid uncertain peace prospects.

The Iraq experience followed a similar path. The U.S. military had seemingly conquered the Sunni insurgency in Iraq by 2011 after eight years of war. American forces departed, only to see sectarian tensions revive and provide an opening for Syria-based ISIS to take over large parts of Iraq in 2014.

As Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, architect of the plan for defeating ISIS in Iraq and Syria, put it in 2015, the majority of Sunnis in Iraq simply refused to fight for their government when ISIS swept across the Euphrates and took control of much of the country’s north and west.

“They allowed — and in some cases facilitated — ISIS’s push through the country,” Austin said. The reason for their complicity, though he didn’t say it, was a deep Sunni distrust of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

President Barack Obama, who had called the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq a mistake, sent small numbers of U.S. military advisers back to Iraq in the summer of 2014, followed by an air campaign. This time a new approach was adopted: train and equip the Iraqis to do the fighting, rather than do the fighting for them. Thus was born a counter-IS strategy that ultimately prevailed in both Iraq and Syria.

The problem now is achieving the political goal of reconciling the rival internal groups in both countries.

Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University, sees a strong chance that IS will remain an insurgent threat in Iraq and Syria with an intensity that is likely to grow.

“If it gets worse, which it probably will, then I suspect that analysts in 2025 looking back on this will see the eviction of ISIS from its last contiguous territory and the associated American celebrations as yet another example of overly narrow, short-sighted reactions to secondary events,” Biddle wrote in an email exchange.

Brett McGurk, the former special U.S. envoy to the counter-ISIS coalition, wrote on Twitter Wednesday that the Islamic State group is “near finished” in Syria “thanks to the campaign plan designed under Obama and carried forward under Trump.” McGurk, who resigned in December after Trump abruptly declared that American forces would withdraw entirely, said the military success “requires follow-through.”

A new analysis by the Institute for the Study of War says ISIS is re-establishing insurgent networks in historical strongholds in northern Iraq and setting the stage for future attacks on the Iraqi government.

“The U.S. and its partners should not view the current relative security in Baghdad as confirmation of the defeat of ISIS,” the Institute’s Brandon Wallace wrote in a recent analysis.

Gen. Joseph Votel, who oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East as commander of Central Command, told Congress earlier this month that extremism in Iraq and Syria is a “generational problem.”

When the U.S. military began its counter-ISIS campaign it focused mainly on Iraq, in part because Baghdad itself seemed in danger. The going was slow, and in May 2015 the whole effort appeared in doubt when Iraqi defenders were routed at Ramadi. The U.S. defense secretary at the time, Ash Carter, questioned the Iraqis’ will to fight, but gradually the tide began to turn in their favor.

The Syria campaign also began slowly and was marked by startling setbacks. In September 2015, Austin, the commander of U.S. Central Command, acknowledged during congressional testimony that despite hopes of putting several thousand U.S.-backed Syrian rebels into battle against ISIS, they had managed only four or five.

But the effort gained momentum, and by early 2016 the U.S. had recruited and organized what came to be called the Syrian Democratic Forces, which U.S. special operations troops trained, advised and assisted. Despite new complications on the battlefield, such as Russia’s entry into the conflict, the campaign methodically recaptured ISIS territory and cut off the extremists’ lifelines.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-says-public-should-see-ridiculous-mueller-report-1.7043942
1.7043942Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:43:42The Associated PressThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:43:42U.S. President Donald Trump said he believes special counsel Robert Mueller’s report should be released to the public, even as he disparaged its very existence as “ridiculous.”

“Let it come out, let people see it,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Wednesday for a trip to Ohio. “Let’s see whether or not it’s legit.”

Mueller is expected to present a report to the Justice Department any day now outlining the findings of his nearly two-year investigation into Russian election meddling, possible collusion with Trump campaign officials and possible obstruction of justice by Trump .

Mueller is required to produce a confidential report that at a minimum explains decisions about who was and was not prosecuted. Attorney General William Barr is then expected to produce his own report for Congress and has said he wants to make public as much of Mueller’s findings as he can under the law.

Trump said he was personally looking forward to reading the findings, even as he scorned the fact that Mueller was empowered to write the report in the first place.

“I just won one of the greatest elections of all time in the history of this country. ... And now I have somebody writing a report that never got a vote?” Trump said. “It’s called the Mueller report. So explain that because my voters don’t get it. And I don’t get it.”

[President Donald Trump says it's "ridiculous" that Special Counsel Robert Muller is writing a report to summarize his findings, but says he's looking forward to seeing what it says. (March 20)] Tap to unmute

Trump went on to mischaracterize the effort, saying “it’s sort of interesting that a man out of the blue just writes a report.”

The House voted unanimously last week for a resolution calling for any report in Mueller’s investigation to be made public. It was a symbolic action designed to pressure Barr into releasing as much information as possible.

Trump and his outside attorneys have worked for months now to undermine Mueller and cast doubt on his eventually findings. Trump continued that effort Wednesday, calling Mueller “conflicted” and criticizing the lawyers who have worked on the case.

Though Mueller’s office has said nothing publicly about the timing of a report, several prosecutors detailed to Mueller’s team have left in recent months, suggesting the investigation is winding down.

Trump, for his part, said he had no idea when the report would be released, but maintained his innocence, saying there was “no collusion” and “no obstruction. There was no nothing.”

“With all of that being said,” he added, “I look forward to seeing the report.”

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-this-city-became-israel-s-model-of-religious-tolerance-1.7041903
1.7041903Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:40:35Judy MaltzThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:40:37Nir Barkin, the senior rabbi of the Reform congregation in Modi’in, considers himself a lucky guy. Most of his peers in other Israeli cities have to beg and plead with the local authorities to get permission to use some temporary space for their annual High Holy Day services. And any concessions beyond that usually require drawn-out battles in court.

By contrast, the Reform community in this central Israeli city not only has its own respectable synagogue, it also has its own school. And it’s all funded by the municipality. Considering that Israel doesn’t officially recognize any Jewish movements aside from Orthodoxy, that’s quite a big deal.

“I definitely get equal treatment in this city,” says Barkin, a former kibbutznik who has served as a rabbi in Modi’in for the past 15 years. “I wouldn’t say I’m the favorite child here, but neither am I the kid who gets left out. When the mayor holds an annual toast at his office to welcome in the Jewish new year, I get invited, too. Some people aren’t so happy to see me there, but so what?”

A recently published, first-of-its-kind ranking found that Modi’in — built from scratch 25 years ago halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv — is the most religiously tolerant city in Israel. It came as a surprise to many Israelis who naturally assumed the title would go to the more cosmopolitan and hip Tel Aviv.

But not Barkin, who explains why he believes this city, of all places, made it to the top of the list.

“It’s a combination of bottom-up and top-down forces,” he says. “In terms of bottom-up, when Modi’in was founded it drew people mainly from two places — Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Those who came from Jerusalem were fleeing religious indoctrination, while those who came from Tel Aviv brought with them liberal values. The meeting between these two populations created this bottom-up force pushing for more open-mindedness.”

“As for top-down,” he says, “Modi’in has had three mayors thus far. They’ve come from different parties, but all three of them have shared a liberal take on matters of religion and state.”

The municipal ranking was published by Be Free Israel (also known as Israel Hofsheet), an organization that advocates for religious freedom and pluralism. In determining the ranking, the group looked at issues under the control of local governments such as whether stores are open on Shabbat, whether public transportation operates on Shabbat, whether options for nonreligious burial exist, whether the LGBT community and non-Orthodox congregations receive municipal support and funding, and how much power is exerted by the local religious council. The ranking included 24 cities.

Although Tel Aviv has many more restaurants, shops and theaters open on Shabbat than Modi’in does, Modi’in beat out Tel Aviv in two key criteria, which pushed it to the top. It offers residents civil burial services, and it has no government-sanctioned Orthodox religious council operating within its jurisdiction. Instead, religious services are provided directly by the municipality.

Different forms of Judaism

According to Shaked Hasson, the public advocacy director of Be Free Israel, the fact that Modi’in started from nothing so recently gave it an advantage over existing cities. “It’s much easier, for example, to decide from the outset that you’re not going to have a religious council operate in your municipality than to shut down one that already exists,” she says.

Haim Bibas, currently serving his third term as mayor, didn’t grow up in a Reform or Conservative home, but he says he has no problem accepting different forms of Judaism.

“My motto in life has always been to live and let live,” says the 49-year-old mayor who was raised in the northern development town of Beit She’an and speaks fondly of his two Moroccan-born grandfathers, both of them Orthodox rabbis.

It’s the reason he has fought against government attempts to close down businesses on Shabbat through recently enacted legislation, he says. And it’s why he allots funding for special bus lines out of the city on Shabbat (albeit, only at certain times of the year).

“Pluralism is very important to us in this city,” he says. “We do everything to make sure nobody feels discriminated against or forced to do something against their will.”

About 95,000 people live in Modi’in and, according to Bibas, about one-quarter of them are religious, another quarter can be broadly defined as “traditional,” and about half are what Israelis typically describe as “secular.” Bibas, a long-standing member of the ruling Likud party, describes himself as “a traditional-secular Jew.” The city has drawn a healthy share of immigrants from English-speaking countries; the mayor estimates they account for about 5 percent of the population.

According to Barkin, the Reform congregation of Modi’in, known as Yozma, has about 1,000 members. That includes families with children attending its school and day care center, members of its synagogue and participants in its informal education and social justice programs. The Conservative movement has three smaller congregations in the city but no school of its own.

In addition to traditional-style Orthodox synagogues, the city also has several progressive Orthodox congregations, in which women fill more active roles. Along with standard, state-funded public and religious schools, Modi’in also has a mixed religious-secular school, called Yachad, considered a flagship of pluralistic education in Israel.

Ofer Glanz, among the city’s original residents, was a founder of Shachar, a party that champions religious pluralism and focuses mainly on education. His successor, Moshe Levy, today serves as deputy mayor.

Glanz finds it somewhat strange that his city is considered such a model of religious freedom. “I would say that Modi’in doesn’t promote freedom from religion as much as it promotes the freedom to practice religion as you wish,” he says. “When there’s a critical mass of people here who want to do something a certain way, this is a city that flows with them. But it’s very different from Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is truly a secular city. Modi’in is not.”

If Modi’in, unlike Tel Aviv, offers its residents nonreligious burial services, that’s thanks to a decision that was made very early on, Glanz says. “It was one of the first issues that came up when Modi’in was founded,” he recounts. “Some of the local rabbis turned up their noses at the idea, but they didn’t do a whole lot to prevent it.”

As former head of the Shachar party, Glanz held the education portfolio in the city for six years. The fact that both the Reform and pluralistic schools receive city funding is no coincidence, he says, but rather the outcome of a deliberate policy adopted in the early days.

“When Modi’in was founded, one of the things we feared was that different groups would move in and try to create facts on the ground through their schools,” he says. “So we decided there would be no private schools. Everything would be subject to public oversight. And once enough people came forth saying they wanted a certain type of school, we would provide them with the funding.”

Glanz believes that “one of the greatest achievements” of the city — a decision by its first mayor — was to resist pressure to create an independent religious council. “In most cities, these religious councils are just a means for creating jobs and recipes for bureaucracy,” he says.

If Modi’in has evolved into a model for religious tolerance, its sizable English-speaking population is at least in part to thank for that, Glanz says. “These are people who understand what pluralism is about and do not consider it a dirty word,” he says.

Diverse, to a point

Josie Glausiusz, a British-born science writer, moved with her family to Modi’in from Ra’anana, a city north of Tel Aviv, three years ago. The big draw for her was Darchei Noam, one of the Orthodox egalitarian congregations in the city. “We had friends who had moved here, and we came to visit them one Shabbat and really liked it,” she says.

But to her it’s still not the perfect place. “I like the fact that Modi’in has a very diverse Jewish population, but ideally, I’d like to be among people of other religions as well, and there are no such people in this city,” Glausiusz says.

Yizhar Hess, the executive director of the Conservative-Masorti movement in Israel, has been living in this city for 15 years. He believes that its openness and tolerance on religious matters are part of a more overriding philosophy. “Since its early days, this is a city that has focused on providing the services its citizens need, and that means being as pluralistic as its citizens want to be,” he says.

But the results of last October’s municipal elections, he believes, suggest a growing fear among residents that the trend could be reversed. “Modi’in Free, a party dedicated to promoting religious freedom, went up from one to three seats in the last election,” he notes. “That’s a big increase, and it says to me that people here are worried.” (All told the city council has 19 seats.)

Avi Elbaz, who heads Modi’in Free — currently the only party in the opposition — doesn’t believe the city deserves its newly won accolade. “It’s just not true that we’re the city with the most religious freedom in Israel,” he says.

“Anyone who put together a ranking that says we are simply doesn’t have their facts straight. They should come here on a Friday night, and then they’d see what a ghost town this is. Maybe there are a few places open, but it’s a drop in the bucket. It’s nothing like Tel Aviv. What’s more, the religious parties are gaining more and more control here.”

Bibas, the mayor, makes light of these accusations. “I’ve always fought to keep places open on Shabbat, but I can’t fight people who don’t want to keep them open,” he says. “It’s up to them. If they’re not keeping their shops open, that means it doesn’t make financial sense for them to.”

Comparing Modi’in to a city like Tel Aviv isn’t fair, he says. “We’re a city with barely 100,000 residents, and Tel Aviv has half a million, so obviously, many more places will be open there.”

As for charges that the religious parties are gaining more control in the city, he notes that only three members of the current city council are religious.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-pulls-out-map-of-syria-declares-isis-defeated-by-tonight-1.7043913
1.7043913Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:32:36Reuters וHaaretzThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:32:36U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday used a series of charts and graphs to tout his administration's success on foreign and domestic policy.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump exited the White House proudly displaying maps showing the decrease of ISIS strongholds in Syria to reporters. While visiting an Ohio tank manufacturing plant, the President showed plant employees the same maps of the decrease in ISIS and a series of charts touting economic and employments highlights during his administration.

"So, two maps identical, except the one on top was Syria that the one on top was Syria in November of 16. You remember that date? November 16.. November 8th... we had a little victory that night," Trump said in a bizarre ramble. Trump added that 400 U.S. troops will remain in Syria after ISIS is cleared from its final enclave.

8 years of war in Syria: Assad Won Syria's Civil War. Can he Now Survive an Israeli Attack? | Doctor, 'Butcher,' President: The Journey of Syria's Infamous Leader | How Assad defied the odds, won in Syria and pushed the U.S. out

Trump continued, "So what happens is this is all ISIS, now on the bottom that's as of today, this is ISIS there's none. The caliphate is gone. As of tonight. Pretty good. That's pretty good right? We took over a mess we took over a mess with North Korea. We took over a mess in the Middle East."

U.S.-backed Syrian fighters said they were still searching territory captured from Islamic State at its final enclave in eastern Syria on Thursday and denied a report the jihadists had been finally defeated.

The final capture of the Baghouz enclave at the Iraqi border will mark the end of Islamic State territorial rule that once spanned a third of Syria and Iraq after years of military campaigns by a range of international and local forces.

After weeks of fighting, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took a big step towards capturing the besieged area on Tuesday when they seized an encampment where the jihadists had been mounting a last defence of the area.

"Combing continues in the Baghouz camp," an SDF media official said, citing commanders of the operation on Thursday, after the Syrian Kurdish news outlet Hawar reported that the entire enclave had been captured and IS defeated.

"There is no truth (to the report of) the complete liberation of the village," the official said.

The report on Hawar News, which is close to the Kurdish-led administration that runs much of northern Syria, was later removed from its website.

The group on Wednesday posted a poll on Twitter of its members, showing that 74 percent of them want candidates to skip the annual AIPAC conference.

The group listed four reasons why candidates should not appear at AIPAC: Its vigorous opposition to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal negotiated by President Barack Obama. The fact that the featured speaker this year is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who MoveOn says might have overseen war crimes, and who recently forged an alliance with a far-right party ahead of Israel’s elections next month.

>> AIPAC conference was going to be all about the Benjamin — then Ilhan Omar came along | Analysis

AIPAC’s allowance of figures identified by some groups as Islamophobes to appear at its conferences. AIPAC’s failure to condemn figures close to President Donald Trump believed to be in bed with the far right.

AIPAC rarely takes U.S. officials to task for anything outside the context of Israel, and it has condemned the far-right Jewish Power party that has forged an alliance with Netanyahu. This week, AIPAC distanced itself from a scheduled speaker, pro-Israel giver Adam Milstein, who was accused of peddling Islamophobic themes on his Twitter feed. Milstein then withdrew from speaking at the conference.

“It’s time for progressives to recognize where their base stands — which means upholding progressive principles on domestic AND foreign policy,” the group said on Twitter. “Skip #AIPAC2019.”

No declared presidential candidates are scheduled to speak at the conference, and AIPAC’s policy is that presidential candidates are invited to speak only in election years. However, candidates have in past years circulated at the conference and have held private parlors to meet with activists.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-s-state-prosecutor-may-nix-state-s-evidence-deal-with-key-figure-in-submarine-1.7043822
1.7043822Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:18:42Revital HovelThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:18:42The Israeli state prosecutor said on Thursday that it is considering calling off the state's evidence agreement with former navy official Michael Ganor, after he recanted his testimony in the case over alleged corruption in Israel’s purchase of submarines.

According to the state prosecutor, Ganor's testimony following re-questioning this week "contradicts his detailed testimony given as state's evidence." Ganor's defense attorneys will plead their case by Wednesday.

On Tuesday, investigators confronted Ganor with statements in previous interrogations, as well as recordings and other evidence he had previously given to police.

>> How Netanyahu's steel shares miraculously quadrupled to $4 million ■ Reopen the investigation into the submarine affair | Editorial

Ganor told confidantes that he had agreed to turn state's evidence because of police pressure. "I agreed to sign a state's witness agreement only because the police threatened to arrest my wife and daughters – I couldn't take the pressure," he said. "The police set the narrative in the case. Every time before confrontations with chief suspects, investigators took him to a room that was not recorded by cameras and instructed me exactly what to say and how to act. This is the truth – I don't want to lie and say that this was bribery."

Ganor is a former senior Israeli navy official who was German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp’s representative in Israel. The case in which he has been implicated, dubbed Case 3000, involves alleged corruption over Israel’s purchase of submarines and missile boats for the Israel Navy. In recent months, he has expressed dissatisfaction over the state’s evidence agreement in his case, calling it draconian and divorced from reality.

In November, the police announced that it found sufficient evidence to charge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyer, David Shimron, with facilitating bribery in the affair. Shimron, who is also Netanyahu’s cousin, began representing Ganor in 2009. Police say Ganor used the family connection to Netanyahu to advance ThyssenKrupp’s interests in what became a deal worth nearly $2 billion for the company.

Police also recommended charging Netanyahu’s former bureau chief, David Sharan, former navy chief Eliezer Marom and two other ex-navy commanders on similar bribery counts in the case. Ganor served in the navy with Brig. Gen. (res.) Avriel Bar-Yosef, who police also recommended to charge.

The latest development could make it more difficult for prosecutors to prove their case against the other suspects, however, because Ganor’s earlier statements that the funds that he had transferred were bribes are considered central to the case.

Earlier this month, Channel 13 News reported that Netanyahu had been a business partner of another cousin, Nathan Milikowsky until 2010, and that they had owned shares in a company, GrafTech International, that was a supplier to Thyssenkrupp, the German shipbuilder at the center of Case 3000.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-continues-to-attack-mccain-claims-didn-t-get-a-thank-you-for-funeral-1.7043880
1.7043880Thu, 21 Mar 2019 13:10:02The Associated PressThu, 21 Mar 2019 13:10:02Casting aside rare censure from Republican lawmakers, President Donald Trump aimed new blasts of invective at the late John McCain Wednesday, even claiming credit for the senator’s moving Washington funeral and complaining he was never properly thanked.

By the time the president began his anti-McCain tirade in Ohio, several leading Republicans had signaled a new willingness to defy Trump by defending the Vietnam War veteran as a hero seven months after he died of brain cancer. One GOP senator called Trump’s remarks “deplorable.”

Trump then launched a lengthy rant in which he claimed without citing evidence that McCain had pushed for a war and failed America’s veterans.

“I gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted,” Trump told reporters at a campaign-style rally in Lima, Ohio. “I didn’t get (a) thank you but that’s OK.”

In fact, McCain’s family made clear that Trump was not welcome during the week-long, cross-country ceremonies that the senator had planned himself. Instead, McCain invited former Presidents George W. Bush, who defeated McCain during the 2000 GOP nomination fight, and Barack Obama, who defeated him in 2008, to deliver eulogies on the value of pursuing goals greater than oneself. Trump signed off on the military transport of McCain’s body, went golfing and was uncharacteristically quiet on Twitter during the Washington events.

Trump’s publicly nursed grudge against McCain has not appeared to alienate core supporters, some of whom had soured on the senator by the time of his death. Aware of this, GOP lawmakers until now have stayed subdued or silent though Trump sometimes infuriated them with his comments on their late colleague.

McCain’s allies suggested it was time for that to change.

“I hope (Trump’s) indecency to John’s memory and to the McCain family will convince more officeholders that they can’t ignore the damage Trump is doing to politics and to the country’s well-being or remain silent despite their concerns,” said Mark Salter, McCain’s biographer. “They must speak up.”

Trump has said for years that he doesn’t think McCain is a hero because the senator was captured in Vietnam. McCain was tortured and held prisoner for more than five years.

The president has never served in the military and obtained a series of deferments to avoid going to Vietnam, including one attained with a physician’s letter stating that he suffered from bone spurs in his feet.

One McCain Senate vote in particular is the thumbs-down Trump can’t seem to forget. The Arizona senator in 2017 sank the GOP effort to repeal Obama’s health care law. Trump was furious, and it showed even in the days after McCain’s death last August. The administration lowered the American flag over the White House to half-staff when McCain died on a Saturday, but then raised it by Monday. After public outcry, the White House flags were again lowered.

This week, Trump unloaded a new series of anti-McCain tweets in which he said he never had been “a fan” and never would be.

His relentless new targeting of the deceased senator seemed to cross a boundary for several Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called McCain “a rare patriot and genuine American hero in the Senate.” McConnell tweeted, “His memory continues to remind me every day that our nation is sustained by the sacrifices of heroes.”

The Kentucky Republican, who is up for re-election next year, never mentioned Trump, but others weren’t so shy.

Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia said not only the McCain family but the nation “deserves better” than Trump’s disparagement.

“I don’t care if he’s president of the United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world,” Isakson told The Bulwark, a conservative news and opinion website. Later, Isakson called Trump’s remarks “deplorable.”

“It will (be) deplorable seven months from now if he says it again,” Isakson continued in remarks on Georgia Public Broadcasting’s Political Rewind radio show, “and I will continue to speak out.”

Pushback also came from Sen. Martha McSally, a Republican Air Force veteran appointed to McCain’s seat from Arizona.

“John McCain is an American hero and I am thankful for his life of service and legacy to our country and Arizona,” she tweeted Wednesday. “Everyone should give him and his family the respect, admiration, and peace they deserve.”

That McSally declined to criticize Trump directly reflected the broader wariness among Republicans to cross a president famous for mobilizing his followers against GOP lawmakers he deems disloyal. But this week, Trump seemed to inspire a new determination among some to draw a line, however delicately.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who wept openly on the Senate floor after McCain died but has allied himself strongly with Trump, said, “I think the president’s comments about Sen. McCain hurt him more than they hurt the legacy of Sen. McCain.”

“A lot of people are coming to John’s defense now. ... I don’t like it when he says things about my friend John McCain.”

Sherman added: "Sources said [Sean] Hannity is angry at the Murdochs' firing of [Roger] Ailes and Bill Shine," and that Hannity believes "the Murdochs are out to get Trump," suggesting he may leave the network in the future.

The deal is likely to shake up the media landscape. Among other things, it paves the way for Disney to launch its streaming service, Disney Plus, due out later this year. It will also likely lead to layoffs in the thousands, thanks to duplication in Fox and Disney film-production staff.

The deal helps Disney further control TV shows and movies from start to finish: From creating the programs to distributing them though television channels, movie theaters, streaming services and other ways people watch entertainment. Disney would get valuable data on customers and their entertainment-viewing habits, which it can then use to sell advertising.

Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an earnings call in February that Disney Plus and other direct-to-consumer businesses are Disney’s “No. 1 priority.”

Meanwhile, Fox Corp. — the parts of 21st Century Fox that are not part of the deal, including Fox News, Fox Sports and Fox Broadcasting — started trading on the Nasdaq under the “FOX” and “FOXA” tickers on Tuesday.

CNN reported Tuesday that former House Speaker Paul Ryan is joining the board of Fox Corp. Sherman reported that sources in Fox News see the appointment of Ryan and the hiring of ex-DNC Chairwoman Donna Brazile as evidence of a shift away from its rigid pro-Trump line.

The report noted that the former Republican congressman and Rupert Murdoch have been friendly for many years, with the Fox supremo saying in 2014 that he had "particular admiration for" Ryan.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-the-secret-palestinian-doomsday-weapon-1.7025949
1.7025949Thu, 21 Mar 2019 12:58:51Amira HassThu, 21 Mar 2019 12:58:54Israel’s demographic obsession is causing it to lose its wits. Israel openly claims that the marriage of West Bank Palestinians and citizens of countries friendly to Israel is a “political issue”, giving it the authority to prevent them from living a normal life with the subjects of their love. This is the essence of the reply given by state attorneys to the High Court of Justice, in a lawsuit filed by a Palestinian from Hebron whose request to unite with his wife, giving her permanent resident status in the West Bank, was denied.

The fact that the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories had even agreed to consider the request was an exception. In 2000, Israel suspended the process of "family unification”, with the excuse that working relations with the Palestinian Authority have been severed in the second intifada. In 2008, following public pressure by Palestinians and petitions to the High Court, Israel approved the unification of twenty-three thousand families, and defined it a gesture to Mahmoud Abbas. It then went back to its policy of denying family unification.

Security coordination with the Palestinian security forces later returned in full swing, as stipulated in the Oslo Accords. Family unification is anchored in these accords and in Israel’s military legislation, but this is of no interest to Israel’s cabinet. When it wishes to, it relies on what is written in the interim agreements and when it wishes otherwise, it ignores them and invents some new type of handcuffs on normal family life.

>> He’s Palestinian, she’s German, but only an Israeli stamp lets them live together in the West Bank ■ Israel makes it increasingly difficult for Palestinians' foreign spouses to stay in West Bank

The current restriction on family unification is based on Israel defining the issue as “political.” Being a political issue, Israel claims it has the authority to intervene in such marriages. It exercises this authority maliciously, as only Israel knows how. It prevents men and women from living with their families in the West Bank, forbids them from working in the Palestinian Authority enclaves, for Palestinian society and in its institutions, it punishes them by not renewing their visas and uses strange reasons to do so, like that they had passed through Ben Gurion Airport in the past.

Since this is a “political” issue, tens of thousands of Palestinian families live in a constant state of uncertainty, often anxious that they may have to separate for extended periods and having to live overseas for durations that are hard on financially and emotionally. Some people are asked to deposit tens of thousands of shekels as bond paid to the interior ministry in order to obtain a permit to be in their own homes, based on the excuse that they have violated or may violate the conditions of their visa.

During this entire process they encounter arrogant, rude, imperious Israeli officials who often shout at them. Every male or female partner can attest to the manner in which a female border security guard, who could be their daughter’s age, determines: “You’re lying"- or "do you mean to tell me you have a partner and two children in Ramallah?” (said in a tone implying that the person is lying), or “you’ve been in Israel too long” (even though they reside in Bethlehem!). Political issue, indeed.

The convoluted legal formulations and humiliations at the Interior Ministry and at the Allenby border crossing cannot hide the real reason behind the denial of this right to thousands of people, and for the refusal to approve family unification for someone like Abdelrahman Salaymeh from Hebron and his wife Josefin Herbach from Germany. These two, God forbid, may want to enlarge their family and bring children to the world. Worse than that, they may increase the number of children in the Old City of Hebron, which Israel is trying hard to empty of its Palestinian residents.

This is what attorney Yotam Ben-Hillel wrote in Herbach and Salaymeh’s petition: “The suspicion arises that the real reason behind the decision is a racist-demographic one. Namely, to prevent the inclusion of new people in the population registry in the territories and to encourage others, such as the plaintiff, to leave the West Bank. It’s no secret that Israel is very concerned – almost obsessively so – with demographic issues. In this context there are frequent censuses of the number of Jews and Arabs 'from the sea to the Jordan River' in general, and particularly in the West Bank. Thus, for example, a discussion on June 6, 2017 by the 'Knesset Subcommittee for Civil and Security Issues in Judea and Samaria' was devoted entirely to the number of Palestinians living in the West Bank. During the discussion, Knesset members asked representatives of the Civil Administration to obtain precise figures regarding the number of people registered in the Palestinian population registry, the number of births, the number of children entering first grade, the number of deaths, etc. For obvious reasons, there is no transparency regarding the rationale behind denying family unification. Statements like ‘according to present policies and in accordance with the position of political echelons, requests for family unification in these areas are approved only in exceptional cases’ fail to address the right of the plaintiffs to have a family life, and raise concrete concerns that the ‘position of political echelons’ is based on irrelevant considerations.”

Without trucks or pointed rifles, armed only with legalistic contortions by state prosecutors, control of the population registry and of course, the borders, Israel is constructing another strategy for expelling Palestinians from their land. One of many such strategies. This is why it continues to freeze the family unification process. This is intended not just for existing “mixed” couples but for future ones as well, ones expected to attack Israel with the doomsday weapon of a random meeting or a traditional arranged match, using terror tactics such as falling in love and signing a marriage contract.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/u-s-might-freeze-f-35-fighter-jet-deliveries-to-turkey-officials-say-1.7043732
1.7043732Thu, 21 Mar 2019 12:57:55ReutersThu, 21 Mar 2019 12:57:55The United States could soon freeze preparations for delivering F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, officials told Reuters, in what would be the strongest signal yet by Washington that Ankara cannot have both the advanced aircraft and Russia’s S-400 air defense system.

The United States is nearing an inflection point in a years-long standoff with Turkey, a NATO ally, after so far failing to sway President Tayyip Erdogan that buying a Russian air defense system would compromise the security of F-35 aircraft.

“The S-400 is a computer. The F-35 is a computer. You don’t hook your computer to your adversary’s computer and that’s basically what we would be doing,” Katie Wheelbarger, acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, told Reuters.

While no decision has been made yet, U.S. officials confirmed that Washington was considering halting steps now underway to ready Turkey to receive the F-35, which is built by Lockheed Martin Corp.

>> Can the U.S. risk Turkey flying the F-35? | Analysis

“There (are) decisions that come up constantly about things being delivered in anticipation of them eventually taking custody of the planes,” said Wheelbarger.

“So there’s a lot of things in train that can be paused to send signals to them (that we’re serious),” she added, without detailing those steps. However, another U.S. official said one of the measures the United States was looking at was alternatives to an engine depot in Turkey, without giving more details. The official said any potential alternatives would likely be somewhere in Western Europe. Turkey is home to an F-35 engine overhaul depot in the western city of Eskisehir.

If Turkey was removed from the F-35 program, it would be the most serious crisis in the relationship between the two allies in decades, according to Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The strains on ties between Washington and Ankara already extend beyond the F-35 to include strategy in Syria, Iran sanctions and the detention of U.S. consular staff.

“This (the F-35 standoff) is really a symptom, not a cause of the problem between the two countries,” Aliriza said.

Many U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, worry that Turkey is drifting away from NATO and watch improving relations between Ankara and Moscow with concern. The prospect of Russian contractors or officials on Turkish bases that also are home to the F-35 is unfathomable to many U.S. officials.

The tensions could further escalate. If Ankara goes ahead with the Russian deal, Turkey also could face U.S. sanctions.

Despite U.S. hopes that Turkey may still forgo the S-400, experts say Erdogan may have already backed himself into a rhetorical corner. He has repeatedly said he would not reverse course on the S-400, saying earlier in March: “Nobody should ask us to lick up what we spat.”

A decision to drop Turkey from the F-35 program would have broader repercussions, since Ankara helps manufacture parts for the aircraft, including components of the landing gear, cockpit displays and aircraft engines.

Wheelbarger acknowledged that the Pentagon, in light of the standoff, was looking “across the board” at potential alternate suppliers for F-35 parts, including in other NATO countries.

“It’s prudent program planning...to ensure that you have stability in your supply chain,” she said, without speculating that Turkey might be dropped from the program.

Washington has sought to persuade Turkey to purchase the American-made Raytheon Co Patriot defense system, instead of S-400s. Erdogan has said that Turkey was still open to buying Patriot systems from the United States but only if the conditions are suitable.

Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said that in addition to the Patriot air defense system, the American offer “includes significant government-to-government cooperation on advanced system development.”

Although Turkey has held out the prospect of buying both the S-400 and the Patriot system, the United States has warned Turkey it will take its offer of Patriots off the table unless it changes course.

A Turkish S-400 purchase could also trigger a fight with the U.S. Congress, which has already blocked all major arms sales to Ankara while the S-400 deal is pending.

Lawmakers could renew attempts to introduce legislation that would legally prohibit the Trump administration from allowing Turkey to have the F-35 if it secures the S-400s.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/kushner-inc-a-book-you-can-judge-by-its-cover-1.7043704
1.7043704Thu, 21 Mar 2019 12:29:08Adrian HenniganThu, 21 Mar 2019 12:29:08Has it really been only two years since we all had the overwhelming desire to punch anyone who used the word “Javanka” in a non-ironic manner? The intervening years have been quite the fall for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, though, as they have gone from the White House’s potential voice of sanity to the epitome of its stupidity and vanity.

Given the sheer number of behind-the-chaotic-scenes exposés of life at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since Michael Wolff’s “Fire & Fury” was published early last year, it was inevitable that Jared and Ivanka would receive their moment in the spotlight at some point. Indeed, if they are only half as vain as that book suggests, they are probably just disappointed it took so long to arrive.

The biggest problem with Vicky Ward’s “Kushner, Inc. Greed. Ambition. Corruption” is there for all to see on the cover: The title is ostensibly about Jared, but the image shows Ivanka front and center. She looks like a Hollywood movie star while her husband, semi-obscured behind her, looks like a pasty Hollywood accountant.

The book’s publishers would no doubt love to furnish us with lurid details about Ivanka’s charmed life, but instead there are lots of details about her husband’s less-than-riveting business dealings, the couple’s love of the perks of the position (free trips on Air Force One! Woo-hoo!) and their lack of qualifications for the jobs at hand. (Lest we forget, pretty much the only job President Donald Trump didn’t give his son-in-law was to build that damned wall.) Whether intentionally or not, the book does manage to mirror one aspect of White House life for the Kushners: Ivanka goes missing for large parts of it.

After wading through these 304 pages, you will recognize that this is not an “The Extraordinary Story of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump,” as the book’s subtitle claims, but merely a story of extraordinary privilege and two rather average people. Two people born into wealth and dysfunctional families, who worked in their fathers’ real estate empires with various levels of failure, before ultimately lucking into the ultimate D.C. location.

Anyone looking for major revelations about the Jared and Ivanka’s lives or insights into their way of thinking (or, say, how big a role Judaism plays in their family) will be disappointed by “Kushner, Inc.” The book trades more on gossip than substance, but even so, it’s hard not to feel that you’ve heard the majority of these stories before.

On the plus side, there’s a great quote from Trump’s former economic adviser, Gary Cohn, about Ivanka seeing herself as a future U.S. president (“She thinks this is like the Kennedys, the Bushes, and now the Trumps”); an all-too-believable story about how Donald Trump wished his daughter had married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady instead of Jared (and how the Kushners themselves were less than enamored by the prospect of their son “marrying out”); and how the president mulled the idea of kicking Ivanka and Jared out of Washington because of the headaches they were causing him in the press. It was also good to be reminded that Donald Trump excused his tweeting of an anti-Semitic image because he thought the Star of David in the image was actually a sheriff’s badge.

But even the few revelations get watered down by the text. For instance, the paragraph revealing that Trump Sr. was allegedly displeased when Ivanka converted to Judaism starts: “Trump was said to be discombobulated by the enormity of what his daughter had done.” Really? Trump couldn’t even spell “discombobulated” in a tweet, never mind feel it.

Although Ward says she interviewed 220 people in the process of writing the book, I can only assume Steve Bannon is a master of disguise – because many of the voices sure sound a lot like him getting his revenge on “Javanka” (feel free to punch me) for his ouster from the Oval Office. And it gives me absolutely no pleasure to report that the stories involving Bannon tend to be some of the book’s most entertaining anecdotes.

Take this excerpt describing a fundraising meeting between Bannon and the rest of the Trump team with GOP billionaire Sheldon Adelson in August 2016, a conversation that “centered” on Israel. “Adelson’s chief concern was that the next U.S. president move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. During that conversation, Kushner was not consulted. ‘Sheldon thought Jared and Ivanka were just kids,’ observed someone with knowledge of the meeting. ‘He was completely dismissive of them.’”

Soon after, we learn that the Trump team met the following month with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Trump Tower, where Kushner was on home turf. When talk turned to the Middle East, Ward quotes Bannon as saying Bibi delivered a two-hour “masterclass,” and adds: “Trump let Kushner jump in, because U.S.-Israel relations was the one political issue anyone in the campaign ever saw Kushner get worked up about. ‘On the Israel stuff, Jared at least comes across like he knows what he’s talking about,’ said someone who was at the meeting.” This offers a perfect example of the amount of snark to be found on every page of the book.

If there is a reason to pick up a copy of “Kushner, Inc.,” other than to swat a fly, it probably is for those little snippets about Israel and the Middle East. Certainly, one thing the book makes abundantly clear is how much Kushner loves Israel. For example, after he bought the New York Observer, the book details how he wrote a manifesto on what the weekly should be about. “It was, like, four pages long, and two of them were about Israel. I thought that was bizarre,” then-editor Elizabeth Spiers is quoted as saying, noting that until then, the New York Observer had, reasonably enough, always been about the Big Apple.

Then there’s the disastrous meeting — first reported in the New Yorker — between Kushner and U.S. special envoy Jason Greenblatt with the Palestinians in May 2017. When Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reportedly told Kushner it felt like he was “dealing with real estate agents, not U.S. officials,” Kushner replied: “You haven’t made peace with politicians. Maybe you need a real estate agent.”

The one thing “Kushner, Inc” definitely does not need is more real estate. There are over 70 references to the Kushner family-owned 666 Fifth Avenue — which the book accurately refers to as the “Tower of Debt.” This highlights Ward’s own journalistic interests: Her previous book, “The Liar’s Ball,” was about New York’s GM Building.

Still, Ward does provide a few details about something few people have managed: Kushner’s Middle East peace plan, hitherto considered as mythical as Narnia, Westeros and Jared’s voice. She cites “multiple people who saw drafts of the plan,” noting that Saudi Arabia — presumably thanks to Kushner’s new bestie, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — would build an oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Gaza, “where refineries and a shipping terminal could be built. The profits would create desalination plants, where Palestinians could find work, addressing the high unemployment rate.”

“The plan also entailed land swaps, so that Jordan would give land to the Palestinian territories,” she adds. “In return, Jordan would get land from Saudi Arabia, and that country would get back two Red Sea islands it gave Egypt to administer in 1950.” If Kushner succeeds in selling that one to the Palestinians, he may want to try selling them London Bridge while he’s at it.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-election-watchdog-forces-ultra-orthodox-city-to-display-women-on-campaign-ads-1.7043725
1.7043725Thu, 21 Mar 2019 12:21:24Jonathan LisThu, 21 Mar 2019 12:21:24Chairman of the Central Election Committee on Wednesday determined it is dicriminatory for the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak to remove women from election campaigns.

Justice Hanan Melcer, who is also a Supreme Court justice, slapped 7,500 shekels ($2,000) in legal costs on the Bnei Brak municipality on behalf of the Meretz party and Israel Women’s Network, who had sued the city after it banned an election poster featuring Meretz leader Tamar Zandberg.

Melcer noted that his ruling had been handed down on Purim eve: “It scarcely needs mention that this holiday stresses the role and importance of women, and the need to respect them and protect their status. For the wise, a hint suffices.”

>> What the radicalization of Israel's ultra-Orthodox community looks like from the inside

Not one female face has appeared on campaign materials disseminated in Bnei Brak. For instance, Tzipi Livni’s picture was removed from billboards calling on the left and center parties to merge.

Hutzot Zahav, the ad agency handling Bnei Brak explained that the people behind the campaign preferred to avoid a provocation. Said people denied any such thing, saying the municipality had refused to allow billboards with Livni’s face on them. A representative of Hutzot Zahav then admitted that the company and the city have a policy according to which female faces shall not appear on billboards in the city.

Michal Gera Margaliot, a lawyer who heads the Women’s Network, said that the intention behind removing women from promotional material is to erase the image, voice and influence of women in general. Israeli law prohibits discrimination against women and removal of their images form the public space.

Meretz stated that it will be present wherever rights are trampled. “We will continue to fight for Israel’s future and stand firmly against anyone trying to take back the country by centuries.” It will take on racists, chauvinists and religious coercion, Meretz stated.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-israel-banning-kahanist-played-straight-into-the-right-s-hands-1.7043506
1.7043506Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:56:13Noa OsterreicherThu, 21 Mar 2019 11:56:13What luck the co-leaders of the Hayamin Hehadash party, Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, have. These folks sure know how to maximize profits. Less than two hours after Sunday’s terrorist attack at the Ariel junction in the West Bank, they were already able to say who was to blame. Who? The High Court of Justice.

Okay, so try to look surprised. It’s actually the Israeli justice system that put the knife in the terrorist’s hand, wished him luck and sent him to the intersection. And now boys and girls, who knows what you’re supposed to do to someone who helps terrorists?

That’s right. If Mom and Dad vote for Hayamin Hehadash, when you grow up, you’ll have to go to into the army but it will be an entirely different army. If up to now, the Israeli army hasn’t had to provide answers, Bennett and Shaked will also eliminate all the questions.

“The legal restrictions imposed on the army are preventing effective deterrence,” Shaked has said. And Bennett has added: “When Israeli soldiers see a terrorist, they think five times over before opening fire for fear of being put on trial.”

>> Israeli justice minister's three lies | Opinion

Did you get it? A soldier sees a terrorist, but because he’s preoccupied by the high court, he can’t manage to cock his weapon and fire. They swear by the Torah, that’s what has happened. Look at the effect involved. A group of old Ashkenazi jurists in Jerusalem flutter their wings and a soldier and a civilian get killed at the Ariel junction.

What luck Bennett and Shaked have. Just that same evening, they received the best news they could have hoped for. The high court had disqualified Michael Ben-Ari of the right-wing Otzma Yehudit party from running for the Knesset, while allowing leftist Ofer Cassif of Hadash and the Arab Ra’am-Balad party slate to run.

“High Court justices have crossed a red line this evening,” Bennett gleefully tweeted. “The justices have left us no choice but to act, and forcefully.” A red line, no choice – hey, what’s happening? Is someone planning to wade in the Litani River in Lebanon this summer or something? What’s with the rhetoric?

Ah, Naftali Bennett, the outgoing education minister, and Ayelet Shaked, the outgoing justice minister, had done their homework and just by chance, they were well prepared. “Shaked’s plan to complete the judicial revolution,” is what they call it. Or in short, the justices should say thank you and shut up.

>> Hayamin Hehadash calls to annex part of West Bank, grant citizenship to Palestinian residents

They should say thank you that they are still allowed to wear their nice black judges’ robes, to sit on the nicely upholstered chairs and draw a salary. They should say thank you that they’re not in Syria. But they should shut up already.

We don’t care about international law, about constitutional law, about justice. They should do what they’re told. We’re the chosen people, haven’t you heard? Not the appointed people, not the people who went through a public bidding process or a nominating committee. Chosen! So who are you to make decisions about us?

“Ayelet will direct the Supreme Court, Bennett will defeat Hamas,” That’s really what their party’s campaign slogan says. It contains alliteration in Hebrew, but the meaning is clear. No more nuance or subtext. I wouldn’t be surprised if the first draft of the slogan said something like Ayelet will defeat the Supreme Court.

How lucky Bennett and Shaked are. The attack at the Ariel junction was just a stroke of luck that played into their hands, but by evening, they were probably nervously biting their nails while watching TV. Would the court disqualify Ben Ari or not? Would it disqualify Balad and Cassif? Their sigh of relief when they learned how the court ruled reverberated from Shaked’s home in Tel Aviv to Ra’anana, where Bennett lives.

What would they have done had the court not done what was expected, heaven forbid, and allowed Ben-Ari to run or barred Balad or Cassif? What grounds might they have found for issuing their plan to “complete the revolution”?

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/israeli-spyware-used-to-target-slain-mexican-journalist-s-widow-report-says-1.7043575
1.7043575Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:43:24The Associated PressThu, 21 Mar 2019 11:43:24The widow of a renowned Mexican journalist murdered two years ago was the target of an attempted spyware attack 10 days after his death, an internet watchdog group reported Wednesday.

The Toronto-based Citizen Lab said the attempt to place Pegasus spy software targeted Griselda Triana, the widow of Javier Valdez, bringing to 25 the number of known cases involving the spyware in Mexico — including two of Valdez's colleagues at the Riodoce weekly in the northern state of Sinaloa.

The other two attempted hacks took place the day after Valdez's killing on May 15, 2017, and it remains unclear who carried them out or for what purpose.

Pegasus allows for monitoring of devices and their content, including the remote activation of cameras and microphones without users' knowledge.

Israeli company NSO, which licenses Pegasus, said Wednesday in a statement attributed to a spokesperson that it provides its technologies only "to highly vetted intelligence and law enforcement agencies for the sole purpose of fighting terrorism and crime."

NSO declined to discuss whether any specific country has used its products, but said usage outside those purposes "is considered a misuse and will be investigated."

But in 2017, Citizen Lab made public the results of an investigation that found that some of Mexico's most prominent journalists had been targeted by the spyware.

The watchdog has also reported Pegasus being used to target human rights activists, politicians, investigators and in one case a minor. "We can add Griselda's name to the growing list of family members of cartel-linked killings, and their advocates, who demanded justice and got targeted with Pegasus instead," said John Scott-Railton, one of the report's authors.

"I am not a criminal or a terrorist but I have been a target of spying because I was Javier's partner," Triana said. "What reasons were there to spy on me? Neither I nor my family or criminals, and I am sure that I do not represent any danger to national security."

She speculated that a possible motive may have been to try to discredit investigations into the murder of Valdez, said she would file a complaint and called on the new government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to clear up the case.

The government of then-President Enrique Pena Nieto denied any illegal use of the spyware, and though it began an investigation, it remains unknown who targeted the people in Mexico Citizen Lab's first report on Pegasus in Mexico was released in early 2017 and documented cases from the previous two years. The attempts to hack Triana and the Riodoce journalists shows that the strategy continued to be employed after it became public.

Now investigators say it apparently continued to be active through September 2018, just a few months before Pena Nieto's government concluded on Dec. 1 and more than a year after federal prosecutors announced the investigation.

In Triana's case, she reportedly received a text message that mentioned a possible theory about her husband's murder: that he was purportedly killed in a bid to steal his phone.

Triana, a journalist who works for the Autonomous University of Sinaloa, did not open the message because it seemed absurd — she had been in close contact with investigators at the time. Nor did she open a second message seemingly alluding to her being the target of harassment.

Most of the 25 in Mexico said to be targeted with Pegasus were critics of the government or people in crucial moments of investigations: journalists denouncing corruption cases, activists proposing restrictions on sugary drinks, even foreign experts with diplomatic status looking into the disappearance of 43 teachers' college students in 2014 at the hands of police allegedly in league with organized crime.

The malicious messages purported to have news related to the targets' work or referenced their personal lives, such as alluding to the death of a loved one or a romantic relationship.

Citizen Lab has documented the use of Pegasus in other countries with dubious human rights records, such as Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

NSO said its products have a proven record of helping governments combat things like suicide bombings, drug and sex trafficking and kidnapping.

"Citizen Lab's latest non-scientific, non-data driven report builds upon their ongoing guesswork regarding NSO technology," the company said. "This group has accused NSO of every possible wrongdoing, when the truth of the matter is that our technology helps save lives."

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-prosecution-weighing-netanyahu-criminal-probe-over-share-profits-israeli-tv-reports-1.7043336
1.7043336Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:23:37Gur Megiddo Thu, 21 Mar 2019 11:23:37The State Prosecutor’s Office is considering launching a criminal investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the profits he made on his investment in shares in the Texas-based SeaDrift steel factory that was managed by his cousin, Israeli channels 12 and 13 reported Wednesday.

According to law enforcement officials who were also involved in investigating the so-called submarines affair (Case 3000), Netanyahu was in a "clear conflict of interest" at the time.

Netanyahu’s shares in SeaDrift quadrupled in value over the course of four years, from 2007 to 2010, even though the factory did poorly in that period, it was disclosed. These new details raise additional questions surrounding Netanyahu’s investment, and suggest the terms he received may have hidden a gift worth millions of shekels.

Netanyahu declined to respond to the initial report by TheMarker about his shares quadrupling in value. His Likud party responded after the TV report Wednesday, “Twenty days before the election, there are leaks of an attempt to open another investigation into Netanyahu. Only Israel’s citizens will choose the prime minister – a right-wing government led by Netanyahu or a left-wing government led by Yair Lapid and Benny Gantz.”

Netanyahu received shares in SeaDrift, managed by his cousin Nathan Milikowsky, worth some 4 million shekels (about $1.1 million), while serving as opposition chairman. He sold the shares about 19 months after being elected prime minister, for at least 16 million shekels.

The questions grow larger once it is taken into account that SeaDrift was in financial crisis around the time Netanyahu sold his shares, and went from profitability to loss in the year 2009. The year that Netanyahu sold his shares, SeaDrift’s economic performance was worse by tens of percentage points compared to the year when he bought his shares.

As was disclosed a month ago, Netanyahu and Milikowsky had shares in the factory through November 2010. The factory later merged with Graphtec International, a publicly held company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and a supplier of the German company Thyssenkrupp, which is at the center of the submarine acquisition affair, also known as Case 3000.

The factory was valued at $700 million in the deal.

Shortly before the merger, Netanyahu sold his shares to Milikowsky for some $4.3 million, which was about 16 million shekels at the time. The deal made Milikowsky a significant shareholder in Graphtec, a standing he held through the end of 2015, serving as a board member at the company from 2010-2015.

Netanyahu’s profit from the sale of shares apparently isn’t due to the pricing of SeaDrift in its merger with Graphtec; the market considered SeaDrift to be priced reasonably, or even attractively. Rather, it’s more likely that Netanyahu received unusually favorable terms when he bought the shares.

The factory published its financial data for 2005-2010 when it announced the Graphtec merger. They indicate that its performance actually worsened over the period that Netanyahu held the shares.

In 2007, when he bought his shares, the factory’s net profit was $60 million. That figure declined to $45 million as of 2008, and in 2009 sales dropped drastically and it had a net loss of $1 million.

The full figures for 2010 have not been made public, but based on figures published for the first half of the year, it probably returned to profitability, even if the profit was probably half of what it had been in 2007.

If this is the case, how does Netanyahu explain the financial miracle he pulled off while the factory was foundering? The only possible explanation is that he bought the shares for a significant discount off market price, probably totaling millions of dollars.

Sources close to Netanyahu insist that he wasn’t the only one offered the shares under such conditions, which is part of their argument that this wasn’t a personal benefit and it wasn’t an effort to influence Netanyahu.

Such a gift – a multi-million shekel discount on stock shares – to a sitting politician raises tough questions, even if Netanyahu were only one of a group of people who received similar gifts. But to understand the full picture, more information is needed, and this is something Netanyahu’s associates are refusing to disclose: Who else was offered this deal? Were they family members, or maybe strangers?

The details about the SeaDrift shares were publicized by News1 owner Yoav Yitzhak, whose coverage is clearly pro-Netanyahu. Yitzhak’s article, titled “Why he’s not a traitor,” argued against reopening the submarine case, but the details he exposed may actually make things worse for the prime minister.

Another detail Yitzhak exposed also touches on the submarine case. Yitzhak reported that the person who drafted the agreement for the 2010 share sale between Netanyahu and Milikowsky was attorney Isaac Molho. Molho was a partner at the firm of David Shimron, one of the main suspects in the submarine affair, and the lawyer for Thyssenkrupp’s Israeli representative, Michael Ganor.

Shimron’s involvement in the Graphtec-SeaDrift merger and the transaction between Netanyahu and Milikowsky is yet another factor connecting the steel shares story to the submarine case. Police determined that Shimron should stand trial for bribery in the submarine case for repeatedly invoking his relationship with Netanyahu to advance Thyssenkrupp’s interests with Defense Ministry and Economy Ministry officials.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-there-s-a-dangerous-gaping-hole-in-east-jerusalem-the-city-s-doing-nothing-about-it-1.7043545
1.7043545Thu, 21 Mar 2019 10:59:46Nir HassonThu, 21 Mar 2019 10:59:46A gaping hole excavated illegally by a Palestinian entrepreneur poses a huge safety hazard in the Sur Baher neighborhood of East Jerusalem, where it has already led to the collapse of electricity pylons, olive trees and water pipes. However, the Jerusalem Municipality says “the hole has been filled” and denies that it poses any risks.

The pit was dug in 2013 by an association involved in building homes for academics and by builder Hussein Abu Hamed. Thirteen buildings offering more than 150 housing units were planned for the site where an 18 meter deep hole was dug, across an area of seven dunams (1.7 acres).

Neighbors and sources involved in the construction say the excavation was carried out without a permit and residents complained about it to city authorities while the digging was taking place. The city responded by opening a construction violations file against the entrepreneur and summoning him to hearings, but took no steps to stop the work.

In the years that followed, particularly during rainy seasons, the walls surrounding the pit have caved in, blocking access to a neighboring home. Nearby electricity, water and telephone lines have also collapsed, and an ancient terraced olive grove and a fence that had been put up around the site have all given way as well.

Wael Atoun’s home, which overlooks the pit, has noticeable cracks in the walls. Atoun fears his home’s foundations are also at risk. On his own initiative he has ordered dozens of truckloads of sand to fill a portion of the hole in hopes that it would support his house enough to avoid its collapse.

“This pit endangers two houses and passersby,” Atoun said. “We also have a school above us.”

“I have asked the city to remove this hazard and restore the road, or let us at least fill up the hole. A child could fall from a height of six meters and die,” he added.

The municipality doesn’t have a single, unified position on the issue. A few years ago the builder put up a fence at the site and the city said it did not see the pit as posing any risks and that the process of applying for a construction license could continue. But later the city’s department for dangerous buildings sent a warning letter to the entrepreneur Abu Hamad, demanding he build a protective wall to prevent further collapse at the site. The builder did nothing and was charged with illegal construction.

A response sent by the city to Haaretz a year ago, said the case has been sent on to the legal department and that the builder hadn’t shown up for any of the court sessions to which he had been summoned.

“It’s important to point out that the department for dangerous buildings has been monitoring the situation and will take any necessary steps,” the city said, adding that legal measures were being taken “against the person responsible for excavating the plot.”

While in effect the city hasn’t done anything about the pit in the past year and a half, its walls have continued to collapse. In a response sent this past week, it said that “the pit has been filled in by the department of dangerous buildings and the place has been fenced off, so there is no danger. The issue is still in court. A summons to appear in court has been sent but the entrepreneur is in jail where he will remain until August.”

Abu Hamed’s attorney, Walid Zahalka, said the neighborhood has an approved plan and there was a license to dig the pit. He said the delays were due to neighbors’ objections to the construction. “For now the court has barred us from doing any construction but we are awaiting a decision,” Zahalka said.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/u-k-s-foreign-minister-we-will-oppose-every-un-measure-against-israel-1.7043454
1.7043454Thu, 21 Mar 2019 09:46:48HaaretzThu, 21 Mar 2019 09:46:48The United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Jeremey Hunt said his government will oppose every United Nations Human Rights Council measure on Israel's violation of Palestinian human rights in the West Bank and Gaza.

In an article written in the Jewish Chronicle, Hunt referred to the "Item 7" resolution, which he says "undermines the credibility of the world's leading human rights forum" because of its narrative that "one side alone holds a monopoly of fault."

Hunt said that Britain would vote against all resolution texts in the council's session on Friday, but that this did not mean that his government would "hold back from voicing concerns about Israel's actions".

>> U.K. to ban Hezbollah's political wing, classify it as terrorist group

Britain joins the United States and Israel's criticism of UNHRC for making Israel's human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories a permanent agenda item. Agenda Item 7, under which Israel's human right record is debated at every session, is unique in that no other country has an agenda item dedicated to it.

Item 7, Hunt said, is disproportionate, discriminatory and "obstructs the quest for peace in the Middle East" while strengthening the "hard and trampled road of self-righteousness." He said that the "U.K. will not indulge in illusions. We will continue to press for the abolition of Item 7."

Ahead of Friday's vote, the 47 member council discussed seven reports alleging human rights violations by Israel, including one which claims it committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza March of Return and border protests last year.

In late February, the council's investigative commission determined that the great majority of Gaza protesters who were killed by Israeli forces — 154 out of 183— had been unarmed, and that there are "reasonable grounds" that Israeli security forces violated international law.

Last year, both the United States and Israel dropped out of the Human Rights Council, citing its discriminant focus on Israel.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-the-job-factor-that-makes-israeli-couples-more-likely-to-divorce-1.7043339
1.7043339Thu, 21 Mar 2019 06:26:53Tali Heruti-SoverThu, 21 Mar 2019 06:26:53Despite the advances in gender equality in Israel and the Western world, a husband with unstable employment is still a factor that significantly raises a couple’s chances of divorce, found two Israeli researchers.

Anat Herbst-Debby of Bar-Ilan University and Amit Kaplan of the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Jaffa examined the relationship between work and marriage. While their research broke down some myths, it found that some traditional gender roles remain entrenched.

>> On money and marriage: 'Then my girlfriend bought her husband a black Rhinoceros for his birthday'

The scholars followed some 15,000 heterosexual couples from 1995 to 2008, examining National Insurance Institute records, population registries and income tax data.

They found that in Israel, as in much of the West, divorce rates were higher among lower-income couples. Previously in Israel, divorce was considered a privilege that only the upper classes could take advantage of, due to the expenses involved.

Herbst-Debby notes that once, divorce was indeed more common among higher earners. Now, however, couples in the bottom three deciles were twice as likely to divorce over the period studied as those in the top three deciles: 14.7% versus 6.5%. Those in the middle three deciles had a divorce rate of 13.6%.

In couples where both spouses had a college degree, only 6% divorced over the years studied. The figure was 11% for couples where neither had a degree, and 10% for couples where one spouse had a degree.

The lower divorce rate among college-educated partners is a trend that has been observed internationally, notes Kaplan. The reasons that people of lesser means are more likely to divorce are varied, but they may include factors such as fewer resources to invest in the marriage, such as money for marriage counseling or for dates. Relationships tend to break down without an ongoing investment of effort, notes Kaplan.

While women are more likely to suffer negative economic effects from divorce, they still initiate 60% to 70% of all divorces, notes Kaplan, presumably because the emotional cost of remaining married is steeper than the economic cost of divorcing, but also because people may not be aware of the full cost of divorce.

The researchers note that Israel’s divorce rate is one in 10 couples. The highest rate is among couples from the former Soviet Union, while the lowest is among Arab couples, where gender roles are still more traditional, states Kaplan.

Kaplan also examined how job stability affects divorce.

While Israeli couples are no more likely to divorce if a woman is better-educated or earns more than her husband, a woman who has stable employment while her husband struggles to find a place in the workforce is more likely to divorce, found Kaplan.

She defined stable employment as continuous work over the preceding 12 months. Of the couples she examined, in 55% both spouses had stable employment, in 29% only the man had stable employment and in 10% only the woman had steady work. In 7% of couples, both partners struggled to maintain jobs.

For couples where both couples had stable jobs, the divorce rate was 8%. But for those where only the woman had stable employment, 15% divorced. In comparison, the figure was 10% for couples where only the man had steady employment, and 12.5% where neither partner had stable employment.

“When the man can’t find himself a place in the workforce and doesn’t fill his so-called traditional role, this violates the norm and becomes a problem,” says Herbst-Debby. In comparison, the woman’s job is often considered a “second income” and thus a woman with unstable income has less impact on the relationship.

“Despite the changes in the labor market, including the entrance of women, an increase in education levels, higher salaries, and the concept of equal parenting, the perception of men as the primary breadwinner is still very strong, among both women and men. It’s almost unacceptable that this norm be damaged,” said Kaplan.

The researchers noted that this kind of correlation can be found in the United States and Germany as well. In Norway, however, a man with unstable employment was not more likely to divorce, so long as household duties were divided in an equal manner.

The researchers also found that a woman’s work seniority had no effect on divorce rates.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/education-ministry-gave-millions-to-ngo-that-funds-illegal-outpost-1.7041573
1.7041573Thu, 21 Mar 2019 06:15:56Yotam BergerThu, 21 Mar 2019 06:15:58The Education Ministry gave millions of shekels in recent years to an association funding an illegal outpost being built on the ruins of Homesh, which was evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip and an area in northern Samaria in the West Bank.

An illegal outpost called Homesh Yeshiva has been repeatedly built on the site over the years, with the temporary structures eventually cleared by the Civil Administration.

>> Read more: Israeli activist arrested for entering West Bank firing zone. Residents of illegal post there were never detained ■ Readers ask Haaretz | A friend is moving to a home built on stolen Palestinian land. Is it immoral to help?

After the most recent evacuation of the community’s religious study hall, the association, Midreshet Ma’amakim, launched a crowdfunding project for a return to the site. Nearly 50,000 shekels ($14,000) have been raised so far. The association claims on the crowdfunding page that Homesh Yeshiva has operated for 12 years.

Midreshet Ma’amakim’s turnover in 2018 was about 13 million shekels. Its official goal is to build Jewish study centers and “to enable religious female students to study Judaism in addition to their academic studies, to absorb new immigrant students and to prepare them for their studies in Israel.” The association’s main activity is operating the Midreshet Ma’amakim school.

The Education Ministry has funded its operations to the tune of millions of shekels annually. A review of the association’s internal documents shows that the Education Ministry allocated some 8.5 million shekels in 2017, 7 million shekels in 2016 and 6.2 million shekels a year each in 2014 and in 2015.

Its crowdfunding page states: “40 yeshiva students stay on the land in difficult conditions while trying to right the injustice of the disengagement and connecting to the land from which we disengaged 14 years ago. Conditions on the ground in Homesh are hard: neither electricity nor water is supplied, and all the buildings were entirely destroyed in the destruction of 2005.” The page also notes that “yeshiva students, who are carrying a public statement on their shoulders, are conquering these difficulties daily. The permanent and continual presence in Homesh and the expansion of the yeshiva led to building a Torah study center that will serve as protection against the sun and rain.”

Lior Amihai, the executive director of Yesh Din, told Haaretz that the human rights organization represents the owners of the land in the area of the illegal outpost, which he says was built on private Palestinian land. “The place remains a hostage of a violent and illegal yeshiva, which prevents Palestinian farmers and landowners from reaching the place,” said Amihai. “Now it turns out that the Education Ministry enable the presence of the yeshiva by funding an association that fundraises for it. Yesh Din ... will continue to work to get rid of the illegal invaders.”

The Education Ministry commented: “The ministry funds educational institutions and the expenses of educational institutions in line with clear guidelines and according to the law. Regarding the case described in your inquiry, the ministry strictly funds the school’s activities and not the association’s activities.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-found-in-jerusalem-s-city-of-david-egyptian-god-bes-1.7042407
1.7042407Thu, 21 Mar 2019 06:14:31Ruth SchusterThu, 21 Mar 2019 06:14:35A fragment of pottery found in the City of David excavation, beneath the site formerly known as the Givati parking lot, shows that the ancient Egyptian predilection for the grotesque godling Bes had reached Jerusalem, at least once.

No other images of Bes, whose strange cult began in the earliest Egyptian kingdoms, has ever been found anywhere in the Judean Hills, say the archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University.

His was not a visage that would have launched a thousand ships. The piece found in Jerusalem retains only the apotropaic godlet’s goggling eyes, an ear and part of the mouth, but is typical of his rather repulsive depiction – yet if anything, Bes’ face was not designed to awe or frighten, but to amuse. As in, laughter is the antidote to evil.

“He doesn't seem to have been worshipped per se. Having his image around was more like good luck cameo,” Reut Vilf, spokeswoman for the City of David organization, told Haaretz. “His image would appear on vessels and household things, which would be put in the house to protect children and pregnant woman.”

The image of Bes – decorating vessels, worn on pendants or otherwise – was less a religious artifact and more like a “hamsa” hand-of-god amulet common today throughout the Middle East. Or like a rope of garlic, hung in the home to ward off evil, Vilf explains.

While the Bes fragment found in Jerusalem dates to the Persian period around 2,400 to 2,500 years ago, i.e. the 4th and 5th century B.C.E., there is no reason to think the Persians brought him there. The sherd was found in the garbage pit of a household. Very likely it had graced a pot that broke back then and was thrown out.

“That’s a reasonable assumption, because we didn’t find other parts of the vessel,” IAA archaeologist Yiftah Shalev tells Haaretz. They have no other information about the household itself – whether it might have been Jewish or otherwise. We may speculate that the home wasn’t Jewish, because if the Israelites had a weakness for this deformed dwarf deity 2,500 years ago, it hasn’t been found in the excavations of their homes – while other figurines have. The Jews of yore were not always the strictest monotheists.

The antithesis of evil

Bes himself arose from the dimmest reaches of recorded history in North Africa: His images are associated with the earliest Egyptian kingdoms. Even then he seems to have been one of the minor members of the pantheon, Shalev explains – but always played a protective role of sorts, that expanded over the centuries.

At first the bearded dwarf figurine was responsible for the home and family cell, mainly protecting pregnant women, women in labor and babies and infants. Over time he evolved into a generic protector of good against evil.

Among his eventual roles was patron of music, which is thought to gladden the heart and drive away evil, Shalev explains.

Throughout, his visage was grotesque: A dwarf with a small face, bulging eyes and a long beard, his tongue stuck out and he was often wearing a feathered cap. As we would call it today – he looked clownish. “It is believed the image was designed to make people happy, again driving away evil forces,” Shalev says.

How certain can we be that the fragment on the vessel is he, as opposed to some other deity or figure or ridicule? For one thing, the vessel dates to a time that the Bes cult was popular around the region, if not in Jerusalem, Shalev explains. For another, though there are no similar vessels to compare with in the Jerusalem region, there are plenty from elsewhere that look pretty much the same. (In the pre-industrial age, every single pot was necessarily unique, but they could follow a pattern.)

In a way, Bes could be said to have represented not a single minor deity, but a whole group of deified dwarves.

In any case, from its apparent point of origin in the Nilotic kingdoms, the cult gradually spread throughout the Levant, becoming especially popular in Persian and among the Phoenicians who settled on the Mediterranean coast.

Possibly, the image has also been found in the famous ancient Israelite site of Kuntillet Ajrud in the Sinai. Some think the rock art there depicts YHWH and his wife, Asherah. Some pooh-pooh that postulation and suspect the crude picture shows Bes. Yet others think the theory that the crude drawing of a god shows Bes is insane – why would an Israelite site hail the minor Egyptian deity.

The character of Bes filtering down to us through the ages may have influenced religious behavior around the Mediterranean, culminating in cults such as Pan the goatish god and Bacchus. The ancient civilizations were in contact, whether in battle or in trade, it is not unthinkable that their "gods" became part of the cultural exchanges.

Persia for instance seems to have imported the Bes cult over the years from Egypt, possibly by Egyptian artists coming to work, or Persian soldiers returning home, Shalev suggests. And come their day, the Phoenicians found Bes charming. It is possible, even reasonable to think, that it came from Jaffa or some other Phoenician town that traded with Jerusalem.

“Huge quantities of amulets with Bes’ image have been found along the Israeli coast,” Shalev says, such as the port of Tel Dor and Tel Meborach in the north, and in towns along the southern coast too. Quite possibly doting parents from North Africa to the farthest corners of the Levant lovingly placed Bes amulets hung on strings around the necks of their roistering children, who might then mischievously stick out their tongues, in emulation of their divine protector.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/.premium-malaysia-has-become-hub-for-iranian-activity-western-intel-suggests-1.7043358
1.7043358Thu, 21 Mar 2019 06:01:01Chaim LevinsonThu, 21 Mar 2019 06:01:01Under cover of the predawn darkness of April 21, 2018, two tall, burly men lay in wait for Fadi al-Batsh. He took no special precautions as he left his apartment building to head for the mosque where he often prayed.

Spotting him, the two men approached and shot him 14 times at close range. He didn’t stand a chance. The security cameras in the area did not pick up anything, and the pair – who were carrying false passports from Serbia and Montenegro – fled on a motorbike. Then they switched to another vehicle and somehow made their way out of the country. Israel was said to be behind the assassination.

Born in the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, al-Batsh later moved to Malaysia where he married and had three children. He had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and taught the subject in his new country of residence. This knowledge also helped him in another role. Al-Batsh was a Hamas engineer who took part in the development of Hamas’ drone project and also helped to improve the accuracy of Hamas’ rockets. His death was a serious blow to the Palestinian organization. A mourning tent was erected in Jabalya following Hamas’ announcement of his slaying.

Al-Batsh was one of a number of scientists who were either arrested or killed in various circumstances around the globe, in operations that have been ascribed to an attempt by Israel to damage Hamas’ technological infrastructure and prevent it from obtaining more advanced capabilities.

Before his mysterious death (to this day, it is not known how he was exposed and located), al-Batsh enjoyed a nice life in Malaysia, and he wasn’t alone. Many Palestinians found a warm home in the Southeast Asian country led by Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad, who wears the “anti-Semite” label proudly. After the Hamas engineer’s death, statements from the Malaysian government indicated that he had also been openly active in pro-Palestinian organizations. Al-Batsh was also said to have been involved in mediating arms deals between Hamas and North Korea, and to have nurtured friendships with Iranian intelligence personnel.

Malaysia is one of the few countries in the world which Iranians can visit without a visa; upon arrival, they are immediately issued a 14-day visa. A 2015 article in a Malaysian newspaper described the country as a “bridge” between Iran and other countries. This may explain why 15,000 Iranians come to Malaysia to study, and why some seek to stay on afterwards. (Five thousand Palestinians are studying there too.)

Western intelligence analysts have noted extensive and growing activity by Iran in Malaysia, and that Iran has been shifting more activity to Malaysia from African countries. “Iran has very significant infrastructure in Malaysia,” says one Israeli official. “It has religious infrastructure there that is trying to promote Shi’ite Islam. There’s a very dangerous convergence there between Palestinian students and Iranian knowhow.”

Another connection between Tehran and Kuala Lumpur has to do with the sanctions that were placed on Iran because of its nuclear program. Malaysia continued to support Iran and assiduously maintains good commercial relations with it. But are there other types of relations between the two countries as well?

“Malaysia is the meeting point between various terrorist organizations and the Iranians,” an Israeli official says. “Malaysia is a convenient place for communication, organization and training for various terror groups and states hostile to Israel. It’s a place where they share technologies and plot operations.”

Israeli sources say that over the past 10 years, dozens of terrorist operatives have entered Malaysia to train and use it as a base of operations. In 2012, Hamas operatives trained there for abductions, anti-aircraft fire and sniper fire; in 2014, Israeli security forces operating in the West Bank arrested Majdi Mafraha, who confessed that he had been trained in Malaysia for Hamas’ cyber division; in 2015, two Hamas officials were reported to be running Hamas activity in Malaysia as emissaries of the organization.

Furthermore, in the course of the affair that was uncovered in 2014, which included the arrests of 93 Hamas activists suspected of building a terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank and of attempting to bring about a coup there, some of the threads led back to Malaysia – where some of the men had trained before returning to the West Bank. In another episode, in 2015, Wasim Qawasme of Hebron was arrested after recruiting Hamas activists in Malaysia. The information about this came from a Palestinian who was arrested during Operation Protective Edge and who turned out to be part of a group of 10 from Hamas who had gone to Malaysia to train in the deployment of parachutes. The public will probably soon hear about more activity tied to Malaysia.

The connection between Malaysia and Hamas is not new. The previous Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, visited Gaza and pledged his country’s political and economic support. Today, once again under Mathahir Mohamad, relations between Malaysia and Hamas are tighter than ever, and Malaysia’s foreign policy is seen as being strongly anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian.

Anti-Semitic leader

The Federation of Malaysia is home to 32 million people, two-thirds of them Muslim. Mohamad, the 93-year-old prime minister, has been in Malaysian politics for 70 years, serving as prime minister from 1981 to 2003 and returning to the post last May. Israel sees Mohamad as giving support to radical Islamist groups and promoting anti-Israel policies. One example came last January, when Mohamad decreed that Israeli swimmers could not compete in the World Championships to be held in his country. The reason: Malaysia wants nothing to do with Israel and its people. Not now or in the future. The International Olympic Committee responded by moving the competition to another country.

This action fits in with other statements made by the prime minister in the course of his long political career. During his previous term as he made numerous antagonistic comments about Jews, some of which found their way into his book “The Malay Dilemma.” “The Jews don’t just have long and crooked noses, they also have an instinctive understanding of money,” he wrote. He said something similar in an interview with the BBC last October. In that interview he also claimed that 4 million and not 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.

In most of his statements, Mohamad refers to “the Jews” and not to Israelis, without bothering to differentiate between the two. And he makes no attempt to hide this. In 2012, he said he was proud to be called an anti-Semite. In his personal blog, he wrote, “The Jews control the world by a proxy,” and last August he said that “the term anti-Semitism was only coined to prevent people from criticizing the Jews for their evil deeds.”

At a conference in support of the Palestinians, he exclaimed that Jews “were always a problem in European countries. They had to put them in ghettos and slaughter them from time to time. But they survived and flourished and they hold entire governments hostage. Even after the Nazis slaughtered them they continued to be the world’s biggest troublemaker.”

Mohamad’s odious statements are not confined to Jews and Israel. Other countries in the West are also a target. At the same conference, he said, “There is significant evidence that the attack on the Twin Towers was staged.” He claimed the goal was to enable the U.S. government to operate against different Arab countries. No such theory was ever mentioned before it appeared on the website of the Malaysian Foreign Ministry.

Government as a family business

Even in years when he wasn’t in power, Mohamad remained a key figure in Malaysia, especially its economy, which he controlled through a web of companies subject to his authority and to that of his extended family. This did not hinder him from waging a successful anti-corruption campaign against his predecessor, Najib Razak, that led to Razak’s ouster and Mohamad declaring that corruption is “a problem of the past.”

But it isn’t clear that replacing the prime minister is the solution for the corruption that has plagued Malaysia for so many years. According to local reports, Mohamad and his associates exploited the privatizing of national industries so they could get their hands on the huge sums the state received. Today the ruler’s family has holdings in 480 different Malaysian companies – for example, in the company that last August was chosen to supply fuel to all Malaysian company vehicles.

Two of Mohamad’s four children are among Malaysia’s richest people. One is Mirzan Mahathir Mohamad, who was involved in one of the country’s biggest corruption cases. For years, Mirzan was the owner of a huge courier and logistical company called Consortium. The company at one point was on the verge of going bankrupt because of failed management and large debts. But it was thrown a life preserver when Malaysia’s national oil company acquired it for hundreds of millions of dollars. And who made the decision for the national oil company? Naturally, Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad.

Another son, Mukhriz Mahathir Mohamad, who is governor of the state of Kedah, has been linked to some dubious deals. Mukhriz was a partner in the founding of the communications company Opcom and still holds ownership through his wife. From corporate documents one learns that a third son, Mokhzani Mohamad, himself a billionaire, is CEO. It wasn’t a great surprise in Malaysia when only a month after Mohamad returned to power, Opcom won a huge infrastructure tender being managed by the Malaysian national communications company, Telekom Malaysia.

Mukhriz has been linked to other corruption cases. It has been reported that as governor of Kedah, he used his political connections to help his father when he wasn’t serving as prime minister. In one case he signed a 60-year leasing agreement for a desirable piece of beachfront land with a company owned by his father. The cost: around $50,000.

In the immediate aftermath of Friday's shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, Ardern labelled the attack as terrorism and said New Zealand's gun laws would change.

>> After Christchurch and Pittsburgh, U.S. Jews and Muslims need each other more than ever | Opinion

"Now, six days after this attack, we are announcing a ban on all military style semi-automatics (MSSA) and assault rifles in New Zealand," Ardern said.

"Related parts used to convert these guns into MSSAs are also being banned, along with all high-capacity magazines," she added.

Ardern said she expects the new law to be in place by April 11 and buy-back scheme will be established for banned weapons.

The buyback would cost up to NZ$200 million ($138 million), she said.

All military style semi-automatics (MSSA) and assault rifles would be banned, along with parts used to convert weapons into MSSAs and all high-capacity magazines.

Under existing New Zealand gun laws, A-category weapons can be semi-automatic but limited to seven shots. Live-streamed video of a gunman in one of the mosques showed a semi-automatic weapon with a large magazine.

Australia banned semi-automatic weapons and launched a gun buy-back after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996 in which 35 people were gunned down.

Ardern said that similar to Australia, the new gun laws will allow for strictly enforced exemptions for farmers to conduct pest control and animal welfare.

"I strongly believe that the vast majority of legitimate gun owners in New Zealand will understand that these moves are in the national interest, and will take these changes in their stride."

Lots of guns

New Zealand, a country of less than 5 million people, has an estimated 1.2-1.5 million firearms, around 13,500 of them MSSA type weapons.

Most farmers in the Pacific country own guns, which they use for killing pests such as possums and rabbits, and for putting down injured stock.

Recreational hunting of deer, pigs and goats is popular for sport and food, while gun clubs and shooting ranges dot the country.

That has created a powerful lobby which has thwarted previously attempts to tighten gun laws after other mass shootings in New Zealand and overseas.

Federated Farmers, which represent thousands of farmers, said it supported the change.

"This will not be popular among some of our members but...we believe this is the only practicable solution," Federated Farmers Rural Security spokesman Miles Anderson said in a statement.

The changes exclude two general classes of firearms which are commonly used for hunting, pest control, stock management on farms, and duck shooting.

"I have a military style weapon. But to be fair, I don't really use it, I don't really need it," said Noel Womersley, who slaughters cattle for small farmers around Christchurch.

"So I'm quite happy to hand mine over, to be fair."

Ardern said the next tranche of reforms will cover the firearm registry and licencing.

Mosques to reopen for Friday prayers

On Thursday, the bullet-riddled Al Noor mosque in Christchurch was being repaired, painted and cleaned ahead of Friday prayers, as grieving families buried more victims.

Ardern has announced that Friday's call to prayers for Muslims will be broadcast nationally and there will be a two-minute silence.

Armed police have been guarding mosques around New Zealand since the attacks. "We will have a heightened presence tomorrow in order to provide reassurance to people attending the Friday call for prayers," police said in a statement on Thursday.

Both mosques attacked, the Al Noor and nearby Linwood mosque, plan to be reopened. Thousands of worshippers are expected at the Al Noor mosque, where the majority of victims died.

Most victims were migrants or refugees from countries such as Pakistan, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Somalia, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist who was living in Dunedin, on New Zealand's South Island, has been charged with murder following the attack.

He was remanded without a plea and is due back in court on April 5, when police said he was likely to face more charges.

The first victims were buried on Wednesday and burials continued on Thursday, with the funeral of a school boy.

Families of the victims have been frustrated by the delay as under Islam bodies are usually buried within 24 hours.

A mass burial is expected to be held on Friday. Body washing will go on through the day and night to have the dead ready for burial, said one person involved in the process.

Police have identified and release to the families the bodies of some 30 victims.

Twenty nine people wounded in the attacks remained in hospital, eight still in intensive care.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/pittsburgh-s-tree-of-life-raises-over-40-000-for-nz-mosque-shooting-victims-1.7043410
1.7043410Thu, 21 Mar 2019 04:11:48JTA וMarcy OsterThu, 21 Mar 2019 04:11:48The Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh has raised more than $40,000 to support the victims of last week's mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and their families.

“We feel compelled to come to the aid of those communities, just as our Jewish community was so compassionately supported only a few short months ago by people around the world of many faiths,” the synagogue wrote on its GoFundMe page set up on Saturday. “We recall with love the immediate, overwhelming support Tree of Life received from our Muslim brothers and sisters in Pittsburgh.”

>> Paying it forward: Pittsburgh Jews among those fundraising for New Zealand mosque massacre victims ■ After Christchurch and Pittsburgh, U.S. Jews and Muslims need each other more than ever | Opinion

The funds will be transferred to an organization authorized to provide support to the Christchurch families and community, according to the synagogue. Until then, the money will be held by the Direct Impact Fund.

Fifty Muslim worshipers were killed and at least 20 injured following shootings at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques on Friday.

In October, 11 worshippers were killed in the attack on the Tree of Life synagogue building, home to three congregations, by a lone gunman. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in the United States.

“To the families going through the most difficult moments in your lives: the Jewish community of Pittsburgh is with you. Our hearts are with you. We hold you in our prayers,” the synagogue wrote.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-roger-waters-can-continue-to-growl-but-eurovision-has-a-more-serious-problem-1.7041609
1.7041609Thu, 21 Mar 2019 03:27:45Yigal RavidThu, 21 Mar 2019 03:27:48For generations of Israelis who grew up on Pink Floyd and who are familiar with every note and every word in the album “The Dark Side of the Moon,” it has been painful to see the band’s co-founder, that old lion Roger Waters, growling for years about Israel.

He is the most significant voice advocating a cultural boycott of Israel over the occupation and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. He and his supporters have also chalked up several important achievements. In the past year, singers Lorde and Lana Del Rey cancelled their concerts here, and then there was the huge fiasco surrounding the cancellation of the Argentinian soccer team’s match in Jerusalem.

Since that night in Lisbon last May when Netta Barzilai won the Eurovision Song Contest for Israel, earning the country the right to host this year’s competition, Waters has been seeking the cancellation of the event, which is scheduled for Tel Aviv in two months. About 140 performers and creative artists from all over the world have joined him in supporting a boycott, including directors Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, musician Brian Eno, and actress Julie Christie.

It’s also unpleasant to find Israelis such as former Israeli air force pilot Yonatan Shapira (the subject of a song by Aya Korem) on the list, as well as musician and writer Michal Sapir, the granddaughter of late Israeli Finance Minister Pinchas Sapir. On the other hand, fan clubs, for which large numbers of tickets have been reserved, have demonstrated solidarity with Israel. Netta Barzilai, they have said, won the 2018 audience poll of viewers from all of the participating countries, and therefore any call for a boycott demonstrates disregard for nothing less than the results of a legitimate democratic vote.

Britain, Ireland, Sweden and Iceland had wavered about their participation in this year’s event, but in the end they have all fallen into line and have decided to come. In practice, not a single country or artist has cancelled participation in the Tel Aviv competition, and just one band, Hatari from Iceland, has said that it intends to stage an anti-Israel protest.

We can also assume that the open letter that Waters has just issued, just two months before the Eurovision finals, won’t lead a single candidate to reconsider. They have all signed binding agreements with their countries’ public broadcasting corporations in connection with the event, and when all is said and done, Eurovision is a stage that every artist dreams of. It’s unfortunate that an inclusive event such as Eurovision has increasingly become an arena for political wrangling, and not only regarding Israel.

It’s also hard to imagine that words of rebuke by an advocate of the anti-Israel boycott would influence the tourists planning to come here for the event. The problem on that score is entirely different.

The anticipation that there would be a large number of tourists – an expectation that I too got caught up in – stemmed from the swelling numbers of foreign tourists to Israel in general, the special place that Tel Aviv has on the entertainment map and the crazy buzz that has been backed by increasing interest in the event. Everyone has wanted to come.

But despite estimates of far greater numbers, it is now estimated that about 20,000 foreign visitors – the hard core that comes every year to every Eurovision host city. How did that happen? The main problem has been the late date on which tickets went on sale, the small number of tickets and the high prices. The breaking point came two weeks ago when 180,000 people, mostly from abroad, who tried to buy tickets were simply unable to make their purchases.

Ofer Adler, one of the biggest tourism wholesalers in Israel, said hotels had made a terrible mistake when they thought that Eurovision tourists were a captive audience who would pay any price. The Tel Aviv municipality even planned a huge tent city in Hayarkon park to accommodate the hundreds whom it was thought would be left without a hotel room. Those plans have now been cancelled, and that’s a good thing. Eurovision fans aren’t camping out types.

Most of the tourists who are coming have preferred to book guest rooms and private apartments that are not cheap but are not as expensive as the hotels. Adler and other senior industry executives say if the hotels don’t lower their prices in the next two to three weeks, there will be the “flop of the century.”

The uncertainty regarding additional musical performances and which leading artists are due to come also hasn’t helped in attracting tourists. The names that are being tossed out, and which are constantly changing – Madonna, Elton John, even an ABBA reunion via hologram – are overshadowing the organizers’ impressive plans. It may not bother the Israeli audience, but Europeans who are looking for musical entertainment want to know what to expect – and if possible, without the holograms.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-number-of-arab-teachers-in-jewish-schools-on-the-rise-1.7043139
1.7043139Thu, 21 Mar 2019 03:21:57Shira Kadari-Ovadia Thu, 21 Mar 2019 03:21:59Thirteen years ago Ronit Rubanenko spent a lot of time looking for an Arabic-language teacher, in vain. “I went to my supervisor,” says the founder and former principal of the junior high school in Kadima, in the Sharon region. “She said, ‘I have a teacher I can recommend, but she’s Arab.’ I said, ‘She knows Arabic: What’s the problem?’”

More Arab teachers followed. Ultimately, of about 35 teachers in the junior high, seven were Arabs.

To really understand Israel and the Palestinians - subscribe to Haaretz

“When the first teacher started teaching Arabic at school, there was a practical approach: I need an Arabic teacher, so we’ll take her because she’s a good teacher,” recalls Rubanenko. “Every day at school begins with 10 minutes of current events. It was the period of the High Holy Days, and we spoke about the festivals.

“Suddenly I saw the teacher and I thought to myself: What is she thinking now? What does she know about us and what do we know about her? I invited her to speak to the pupils about Ramadan. For me that was the beginning of a genuine connection.”

Over the years, what could have been explained as a convenient solution has turned into the increasing integration of Arab teachers in Jewish schools. According to Education Ministry figures, 465 Arab teachers taught in Jewish schools in 2013 and the number has kept rising: 529 in 2014 and 805 in 2018. Although that figure is 868 today, this is still a minuscule number. Israel’s school system employs about 179,000 teachers, and the vast majority teach at schools in their same ethnic and religious communities.

The trend of hiring Arab teachers is not rooted in a pro-coexistence worldview, but began as a solution to an urgent problem. Every year, thousands of Arab graduates of teacher training institutes are unable to find work: Reports are that some 11,000 of them, mostly from northern Israel, wait for years for a position in schools in their communities. On the other hand, at Jewish schools there is a shortage of teachers for subjects such as math, science and English.

>> Arab, ultra-Orthodox schools have fewer teachers per student

In 2013, the Education Ministry, together with the nonprofit Merchavim Institute for the Advancement of Shared Citizenship, launched a program with an annual budget of 1 million shekels ($277,000) to match Arab teachers with Jewish schools. Principals who hire an Arab teacher receive additional teaching hours during the employee’s first year as well as extra funding. The ministry says the goal is to find outstanding Arab teachers; its explanations are pragmatic, and barely mention a desire to break down barriers.

Merchavim and ministry staff interview the teachers, check their Hebrew fluency and help them with the hiring process.

“If an Arab teacher fails, they’ll think it’s because she’s Arab,” says Kamal Aggbriyah, head of Arab Teacher Integration at Merchavim. “But as soon as it succeeds, it open the door for additional teachers. In 90 percent of cases, the principal will ask if the teacher has friends who are looking for work.”

It would seem that given the laws of supply and demand, there should be no need for a special project. But sometimes an intermediary is needed.

“Only last week,” says Aggbriyah, “I interviewed an Arab candidate who had interviewed independently at a Jewish school. In the initial phone conversation the vice principal was very enthusiastic, but when the candidate walked in wearing a hijab, she told her the position was no longer available.”

There are problems on both sides of the process. “We check that the [Arab] teachers have support from their family for the move,” says Aggbriyah: Teaching in a Jewish school means leaving the village and can involve a long commute. The support of the family is necessary, and cannot be taken for granted. Of course, it’s also impossible in this context to avoid talking about the elephant in the room: prejudice, fear and even racism.

Aggbriyah: “We prepare the teachers for questions and situations that are likely to come up with the students. For example, there could be a student who says something like ‘Arab terrorist.’ We live in a country where every two hours there’s another newsworthy incident, and during periods when there’s a difficult security situation the tension is palpable. Students sometimes ask tough questions and direct them toward the teacher, who is often the only Arab they know.”

And in fact, the tough questions come up very soon. “In one of my lessons the students opened up and began asking questions that they wouldn’t dare ask anyone else,” says Yasin Barhom, a devout Muslim who teaches conversational Arabic at the Amit Nachshon yeshiva high school near Beit Shemesh. “For example, they asked about murder in the name of family honor in Arab society, and about marriage to more than one woman. Their questions reflect what they hear in the media, in their surroundings, in schools. I give them confidence to ask whatever comes to mind.”

>> Amount of Bedouin students in Israeli higher education doubled in decade

Even talk about the security situation doesn’t remain outside the classroom. Barhom, who teaches most of the time at an Arab school outside Jerusalem, says that one of his Jewish students claimed that the Islamic religion encourages violence against Jews. His reply: “There’s no connection between religion and terror attacks; violence comes from hatred and racism and religion is only an excuse. I reminded them that even the Bible can be interpreted in an extremist manner, as in the case of [the late Rabbi Meir] Kahane and [Israeli politician Baruch] Marzel.”

Today, about half the Arab teachers in Jewish schools teach mathematics, English and science. About one-quarter teach Arabic, and the rest are divided among additional subjects including art and physical education. This is a new development: Until recent years, most of the Arab teachers in Jewish schools taught Arabic.

In the guidebook for Arab teachers working in Jewish schools that was published a few years ago by the Education Ministry and Merchavim, the approach is very practical, deliberately avoiding possible mine fields. “Focus on the points of similarity and the common denominators that create a sense of identification (like children and problems children have), feelings and emotions, fears, things that make you happy and so on,” says the book. “After all, it’s easier to connect to things that are shared.”

Regarding Memorial Day, the booklet says: “Act according to the principles of prudent conduct: Try to fit in, respect the other, refrain from infuriating and insensitive remarks. Contain the situation, turn to the principal if you are insulted, and remember that after difficult days emotions subside and becomes easier.”

“There’s no need to keep looking for what divides us,” says one of the teachers interviewed here.

>> Separating religious from secular, men from women: This is how Israel trains its school principals

The story of integration of Arab teachers shows how the need to deal with a practical problem can lead to a more profound change. An assessment of Merchavim’s efforts, published last summer, found that Jewish students who studied with an Arab teacher identified less with statements like “All Arabs are enemies” or “Islam is a dangerous religion,” compared to students in a control group.

The students who had experience with Arab teachers also responded more positively than the others to statements like, “I want to meet Arab teens of my age.” The study also showed that the teachers themselves perceive their very presence at school as bringing about a positive change in students’ opinions.

Aggbriyah says teachers who go on to teach in Arab schools are part of the cycle of change. “A teacher who has taught for years in a Jewish school has absorbed a different type of learning culture, which she can transfer to the school in her community.” However, in many cases, he adds, the teachers prefer to stay put: “In the Jewish schools they feel that they have an added value, that they can offer something unique. That’s worth the trip.”

There is some evidence of a trend in the opposite direction, but on a small scale: During the last academic year some 269 Jewish educators – most of them teaching Hebrew – worked in Arab schools; this year that number rose to 350. The Education Ministry is currently launching a new program that aims to increase that figure to 500 teachers, in three years.

A 2016 Education Ministry initiative called “Hebrew on the Continuum” determined that of the five weekly hours of Hebrew lessons offered in Arab schools, two hours would be devoted to the spoken language. The impetus for this is the ministry’s realization that the younger generation of Israeli Arabs speak less Hebrew than their parents: Indeed, in the era of the internet where there is unlimited access to information and entertainment in both Arabic and English, that language apparently seems less essential.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/israel-s-labor-ministry-must-act-on-rising-death-toll-at-construction-sites-1.7043333
1.7043333Thu, 21 Mar 2019 03:12:50Haaretz EditorialThu, 21 Mar 2019 03:12:50Three workers were killed this week in two separate construction-site accidents in the town of Harish. An additional three workers were killed on the job in Netivot, Tel Aviv and Tzur Yigal. That’s six people dead in less than two weeks. None of these victims were Jewish – which is the main reason for Israel’s ongoing neglect of this lethal scourge.

Since the start of the year, 19 people have lost their lives in work accidents, 10 of them construction workers. Despite a rise in public awareness since 2015 about the neglect of safety at building sites (thanks to civil groups and media support), 70 people were killed in work accidents in 2018 – a 35 percent increase over the previous year, according to Labor Ministry statistics.

The most recent fatality in Harish, Ruslan Sirtan from Moldova, fell from a substantial height. Construction sites run by the same company he worked for have had five accidents in the past, and have been cited for safety failures 17 times for permitting dangerous work from great heights, life-threatening flaws in electrical safety and bad scaffolding.

On Sunday, Damon Jol Tatur and Amin Nasser Basul from the village of Reine fell to their deaths from a height of seven stories at a Harish construction site. The same day Fahed Youssef Gneimat was killed by a forklift at a factory in Netivot. Last Friday Ibrahim Nissim Abdo fell to his death while installing air conditioners at a Tel Aviv office building. Last week Majed Abdallah Salim suffered a fatal fall during renovation work at a building in Tzur Yigal.

In light of the ever growing list of fatalities, Labor Minister Haim Katz said this week, “The only ones to blame for the continued carnage at construction sites are the contractors.” It’s easier for Katz to blame the contractors than to admit to the failure off his own policy, which is focused on monetary fines that have no impact in the field.

His responsibility for the situation and for rectifying it requires drastic steps. A new policy is called for to permit the shutting down of construction sites for extended periods following any serious or repetitive safety violations. This is exactly what is not happening today: Sites are reopening only a few days after being slapped with citations for safety violations, and the citations are voided once the flaws are repaired. Contractors find there’s no reason to worry about these citations, even for the most systematic of dangers.

The Labor Ministry needs to increase the number of safety monitors at construction sites. There are currently only about 20 of them. It must also void the licenses of contractors who do not enforce strict rules about workers’ safety, and to change the mode of operation of the police’s “Peles” unit, which was established at the end of 2018 to investigate work accidents, but has not yet investigated a single one. Finally, it must advance legislation to expand the criminal liability of senior contractors and entrepreneurs and extend the responsibility of local councils for safety violations committed in their jurisdiction.

The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-an-israeli-soldier-killed-in-west-bank-attack-died-in-vain-1.7043342
1.7043342Thu, 21 Mar 2019 02:59:02Gideon LevyThu, 21 Mar 2019 02:59:02A soldier was killed on duty. The bespectacled boy, the musical career, the mandocello, the parents who immigrated from the Soviet Union, the friend from the music conservatory who played in his memory.

A soldier was killed on duty. He was guarding settlers at a junction. A Palestinian his age stabbed him to death and grabbed his weapon. He was a soldier in the “Fire Brigade,” artillerymen who have been turned into junction security guards in the settlements.

A soldier fell while defending occupied territory that no country in the world recognizes as ours. A soldier fell defending settlers who are convinced they are lords of the land and that they live in the country’s heartland, Ariel, “the pupik [belly button] of the state,” as the city’s late mayor, Ron Nachman, called it. A soldier was killed on duty, and the papers wrote, “He fell guarding the country.”

Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan, who was killed this week at the Ariel junction, fell guarding injustice. That’s why his death was in vain. It wasn’t just a matter of “Adorable boy – you didn’t deserve this,” from the headline in Yedioth Ahronoth, as if had he not been adorable, he would have deserved to die at 19. His killer, Omar Abu Lila, also had a childish face, perhaps he had also been adorable, and he didn’t deserve to die at 19, either.

But Keidan shouldn’t have died, because Keidan shouldn’t have been in Ariel. The Israel Defense Forces shouldn’t have been there, the settlers shouldn’t have been there, nor the university, the hotel, the industrial zone, the highway, or the private shooting range – none of them should have been there. All this false pretense that Ariel is Israel, that it’s legitimate, that its residents are legitimate, that it’s part of the consensus, that it’s in the settlement blocs, that it will never be evacuated, is all to confer normality on it. But the madness is gathering under the mask. Only a violent, courageous and determined Palestinian can still remind us that it exists.

Nothing was normal about the square where the soldier fell. An artilleryman is not supposed to be guarding a bus stop. There isn’t one other place in the world where soldiers with drawn rifles guard hitchhikers at a hitchhiking post. A young man of 19 shouldn’t have to risk his life so that settlers can remain in a land that isn’t theirs. That shouldn’t be the job of a young man who enlists in the IDF and thinks he’s going to be an artilleryman. If Israel wants settlements, let it find itself men who will risk their lives for the settlers out of their own free will. Let the IDF not lie to its soldiers or brainwash them and tell them that the soldier who fell in Ariel was defending his country. He wasn’t. He was endangering it.

There is nothing normal about a junction whose concrete blocks are smeared wildly with “The people of Israel live,” in an area where most of the residents are Palestinians and none of them want the people of Israel living on their lands. Nothing is normal about a junction with so many rifles, the most heavily-armed junction in the world. Nothing is normal about a city that can be entered only by Jews, along with their servants who get a permit to enter on foot. Nothing is normal about a Jews-only bus stop. Nothing is normal about an industrial zone whose bosses are all Jews and whose workers are almost all Palestinians. Nothing is normal about a hotel and a mall overlooking all this craziness.

Staff Sgt. Keidan was ordered to guard all this. He was ordered to secure the delusions of normality and the insanities of colonialism. He was ordered to secure a reality that will never be secure, even if six “fire brigades” are stationed there. It’s hard to guess what he was thinking as he stood there, day and night, in the cold and the heat, armed and protected. Perhaps he was tortured by doubts, perhaps not. The brainwashing is enough to convince almost any young Israeli that guarding a hitchhiking post in Ariel is the ultimate in patriotism and heroism, while battling the occupier at that same hitchhiking post is murder and terror. That the soldier securing the occupation is a hero, and his killer, the opponent of the occupation, is a terrorist. That the soldier is moral, while his opponent is murderous.

A soldier was killed on duty. He died in vain. He didn’t have to die. He didn’t have to be there.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-gazans-are-fed-up-with-fearing-hamas-1.7043332
1.7043332Thu, 21 Mar 2019 02:53:05Ronit Marzan Thu, 21 Mar 2019 02:53:05The family, the primary agent of socialization in Palestinian Arab society, is at the center of the emotional struggle being waged by Palestinian sons and daughters against three father figures: their personal father, in their nuclear family; the governmental father of the Palestinian national family, and the Israeli stepfather. Palestinian sons, who have become “the sons of no one,” are embarrassed by their personal father, who emasculates them in order to compensate for his own wounded manhood, having been emasculated himself by the governmental Palestinian father; they scorn the governmental Palestinian father, which oppressed them in order to compensate for its wounded manhood and its humiliation by the Israeli stepfather, and are angry at it for seeing to the welfare of its own family and associates rather than its national family. They want revenge against the Israeli stepfather who occupies them and deprives them of a life of liberty and dignity.

In order to complete the maturation process, they must free themselves from living within an emotional community that is subordinate to an oppressive patriarchal cultural regime that inculcates fear, obedience, submission, passivity and humiliation. In its stead, they must create an emotional community based on cultural pluralism, ideological freedom, social justice, self-fulfillment and social solidarity that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, ethnicity, class or gender.

The submission and obedience to the tyranny of the nuclear father and to the tyranny of the national ruler, as well as the fear of punishment, gradually become superficial and fleeting, and the more the next generation is excluded and marginalized, the more willing it becomes to rebel against its fathers. Exposure to the global village through social media enables young people to change and to adopt new patterns of emotional and cognitive behavior. They would like to enjoy the kind of emotional spontaneity found in Western culture and to unshackle themselves from traditional customs and strictures. They would like to give public expression to their thoughts and feelings, to let fly the words that were stuck, the screams that were stifled and the opinions that remained in their imaginations.

Palestinians, especially Gazans who live under Hamas rule, have good reasons to revolt and need no role models for this, but it’s always helpful when there are other uprisings by oppressed populations, near or far. For some of them, the mass uprising in Algeria in recent weeks revived forgotten memories of the ideology of Frantz Fanon and his book “The Wretched of the Earth,” which was a source of inspiration to the early Algerian as well as Palestinian freedom fighters. The protests in the Gaza Strip and occasionally in the West Bank are points of rage that accumulate along the time line and recall what occurred in the years that preceded the Arab Spring.

Here too, in Gaza, the feelings of paralyzing fear, sadness and despair are gradually giving way to feelings of shame and anger over the ongoing experience of governmental injustice, humiliation, cruelty and oppression. Similar to what happened in Egypt and Tunisia, the organizers of the demonstrations in the Gaza Strip announced that they did not seek to overthrow the Hamas government using violence, and that all they want is liberty, justice and a life of dignity rather than oppression, corruption and exclusion. Like their brethren in neighboring Arab countries, they want to be able to live as human beings and as full citizens, not as slaves. They want to live like the children of the ruler, and they call on all of the political factions — Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — to stop stealing from the public coffers.

Like the people who rose up in Egypt and in Tunisia, the Gazans are also gradually relinquishing the false consciousness according to which their rulers will willingly make changes to the patterns of power. The use of live fire by Hamas police officers in the Gaza Strip, as in its use in Egypt and in Tunisia, marks the moment when the citizens begin to realize that the ruling authority doesn’t see them as human beings or as family, but as objects that can be killed or exploited as cannon fodder at the border fence with Israel. This is a decisive moment emotionally, in which the weapon of resistance loses its sacredness in the eyes of the masses. In this moment, anger is replaced by hatred, which breaks the barrier of fear and increases the willingness to risk one’s life and seek revenge.

When the government loses the main weapons with which it controls the population — fear and shame — the norms of obedience are upended. The government that intimidated and hurt the masses is made to fear them. The government that caused the masses to feel shame is called upon to accept responsibility and to feel shame for its actions. The protesters are distributing pictures of Hamas officials involved in the violence and warning: “We are a tribal society and this is a small neighborhood, everyone knows everyone.” Hamas established units to harass Israeli forces near the fence at night. Now the protesters are calling for the establishment of units to harass Hamas at night and saying they won’t be used as Hamas’ fuel in a war against Israel.

Also like the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, in Gaza the protesters make a distinction between the police and the army. They unhesitatingly describe the police, an extension of the Hamas Interior Ministry, as “an armed mafia that is betraying its people,” as “fattened pigs and dogs,” “bloodsuckers” and “new Tatars” living in palaces and imposing a regime of fear on their people. At the same time, they represent members of the military wing of Hamas, the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as people to be supported and protected and rewarded for their participation in all the rounds of combat with Israel, including the Marches of Return that began in March 2018.

The protesters are no longer willing to submissively accept the following equation: “A hungry policeman fires on a hungry civilian to protect a well-fed commander whose children live in comfort and can travel anywhere they please.” Nor are they willing to accept any longer Hamas’ practice of portraying the youth as revolutionaries when they serve its political agenda, and of portraying them as traitors and collaborators with foreign agendas when these same youth demand a life of dignity.

Thus it appears that the economic situation is not the only thing driving the Gazans’ uprising, but also, and primarily, a sense of humiliation and the recognition that wealth and opportunity and a monopoly on political decision-making are in the hands of a small and corrupt group. This is a revolution of the hungry who will no longer be satisfied with crumbs, who are no longer willing to make do with knocking politely on the ruler’s door. Now the question is whether the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades will take the side of the masses, as the armies in Tunisia and Egypt did, and show the Hamas political wing the door, or whether they will choose to stand by the present corrupt and hesitant Hamas leadership as it continues to usher Gaza toward a fierce and bloody civil war.

Ronit Marzan is a researcher in Palestinian society and politics at the University of Haifa’s School of Political Science.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-court-orders-israel-to-explain-refusal-to-grant-darfuri-refugees-temporary-residency-1.7043185
1.7043185Thu, 21 Mar 2019 00:02:46Lee YaronThu, 21 Mar 2019 00:02:46Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the state on Wednesday to explain within two months why it is refusing to grant temporary resident status to asylum seekers from the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan until their requests for asylum are decided upon.

The panel – Supreme Court President Esther Hayut, her deputy, Justice Hanan Melcer, and Justice Menahem Mazuz – also ordered the state to explain why it doesn’t immediately issue guidelines for deciding on asylum requests submitted by Sudanese – requests that have been pending for years with no decision – or why it doesn’t immediately decide on the requests in the absence of guidelines.

>> State recognizes some Darfuris qualify as refugees but does not act ■ Interior minister refuses to grant Darfuri asylum seekers resident's visas ahead of election ■ Israel promised millions to rehabilitate south Tel Aviv, but the money is nowhere to be seen

The decision followed hearings this week on two petitions relating to this issue. The first, submitted by attorneys Michal Pomerantz and Carmel Pomerantz, seeks to order the state to reach decisions on these asylum requests. The second, submitted by attorney Tomer Warsha, calls for granting the Darfuris temporary resident status until their requests are decided upon, as this would make them eligible for health insurance and services.

This would constitute a significant change from their current status, which de facto allows them to work but denies them any other benefits.

According to Warsha, the court orders are “an enormous and rare achievement in our struggle for humaneness for the Darfuri asylum seekers. The High Court was persuaded that our arguments are justified, and that the burden is now on the state to try and prove otherwise. We have said all along that the only incentive that can make the state start working seriously is if continuing the proceedings works to their disadvantage and not to their advantage.”

Warsha added: “If the High Court accepts the petition to give temporary residency to asylum seekers until their requests are decided upon, that’s exactly what will happen and that will be a solution for the refugees from Darfur, who deserve to meanwhile live with dignity like in the world’s other countries.”

The Pomerantzes also welcomed the court's ruling and said they hope that other courts handling the issue “will follow in its footsteps. The Supreme Court has advanced Israel a step further toward wiping out the shame of its ongoing abuse of survivors of genocide.”

During the hearings, it emerged that most of the Interior Ministry’s task force for vetting asylum requests from Darfur had resigned recently. The Population Authority said that three of the five task force members, who had been appointed to formulate criteria for deciding on asylum requests by natives of Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and the Blue Nile regions of Sudan, had resigned for personal reasons. The authority said they would be replaced pending relevant training.

During the hearings, Hayut criticized the state for the pace at which it is handling the asylum applications, calling it “unacceptable given the length of time the applications have been pending – which is many years.” Some 3,800 Sudanese have applied for asylum in Israel, but only a single application, filed by community organizer Mutasim Ali, has been granted, while the rest have yet to receive a response.

From 2012 to 2017 the state repeatedly claimed in response to various High Court petitions that it was working on the Sudanese applications. At one hearing in 2015, it promised to make a decision by February 2016 on all asylum requests submitted by that hearing, but didn't do so. Moreover, despite a court order, the government never provided a detailed schedule for considering the applications.

Since 2016, some 800 Darfuri asylum seekers have received special humanitarian status that confers the same benefits as asylum, including the right to work, receive welfare and go in and out of the country freely. But in October, Haaretz reported that the state will no longer grant Darfuris this status; instead, it will decide on their asylum applications.

In December, following two High Court petitions on its years-long failure to decide, the governmental immigration agency began re-examining all Sudanese asylum requests. The state said at the time that it had to interview applicants again because initial interviews "weren't sufficiently in-depth" to allow for a decision to be made. This was the first time the state had admitted that it was handling asylum requests inadequately.

For years, the state had argued that the delay in deciding on asylum requests stems from a desire to establish a general policy that would apply across the board. In October, it changed its approach, saying it will instead consider each application individually. But to do so, it added, it must first devise guidelines for how these applications should be judged – which led to the establishment of the task force.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-a-lost-decade-under-netanyahu-1.7043307
1.7043307Wed, 20 Mar 2019 23:22:27Zehava GalonWed, 20 Mar 2019 23:22:27Benny Gantz’s Kahol Lavan rediscovered the submarines affair – with an emphasis on the transfer of strategic weaponry to Egypt – in the wake of the 16 million shekels, or nearly $4.5 million, that came into Netanyahu’s bank account. They talk about it passionately and repeatedly. The return of this affair to the spotlight, along with state witness Miki Ganor’s retraction of his testimony, certainly isn’t helping Netanyahu’s blood pressure. But the focus on this affair alone fails to do justice to all the other failures and fiascoes of the Netanyahu decade, which also deserve a bit of attention.

On security, Netanyahu has gained a reputation as a cautious and cool-headed prime minister. This is partially true, but at the same time, he did not do a thing to improve our security situation. Now, after three rounds of fighting, the guy who started out talking about wiping out Hamas is content to act as a courier for Hamas’ funding. He inherited the security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, and continually puts it in danger for the sake of his political needs. Netanyahu is a skilled maneuverer in a complex security situation to which a diplomatic accord and end to the occupation are the only solution. He’s wasted a whole decade on skillful maneuvers that have left us in the same place.

In foreign relations, though, Netanyahu has broken new ground. He forged an alliance with one of the most despised presidents in American history. To this end, he forfeited bipartisan support of Israel, and also managed the rare (though likely to be repeated) feat of eliciting a condemnation from AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League. He generated highly publicized spats with traditional “enemies” like Germany and Sweden, while warming ties with old “allies” like Hungary and Poland. Anti-Semitism was no obstacle. Our standing in the world improved so much that the prime minister unabashedly boasted of improving relations with Chad. Tyrants will say just about anything in order to close an arms deal.

Netanyahu also brought some innovations in governance. We’ve seen ministers protesting against the government, a finance minister trying to hide a deficit in the billions and a deputy health minister who protects pedophiles. Netanyahu isn’t bothered if his ministers make crude attacks on the LGBT community, call for violence and the murder of Arabs. He is only roused from his slumber if a television presenter has the gall to imply that Arabs have rights too. In his book, public figures bear no responsibility for what comes out of their mouths; only minor celebs do.

Netanyahu once described the government as a daycare and himself as the “Bibi-sitter.” He failed to realize that how the daycare functions depends on the babysitter. In the Netanyahu governments, there is no acceptance of responsibility, because the concept is completely alien to the head of these governments.

Netanyahu has put most of his energy and creativity into corruption. No detail was too big or too small for him, even summoning a religiously-observant electrician on Yom Kippur. He was ready to spend nights poring over every comma in Walla online articles, just as he was ready to work towards effecting the purchase of submarines that only his relatives wanted. And he managed to do all this without knowing anything about it.

We could just talk about the submarines, but this episode is just the pus covering a much deeper wound. Netanyahu has lost the ability to distinguish between his own interests and the country’s interests. And he is ready to undermine any institution that threatens this feudal fantasy. He was prepared to let the public pay billions so he could bask in flattering coverage. He was prepared to harness intelligence information to win an election. Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you. This is the man, and this has been our decade with him. A lost decade.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-tel-aviv-aborts-plan-for-eurovision-tent-city-1.7043288
1.7043288Wed, 20 Mar 2019 23:21:06Rina Rosenberg KandelWed, 20 Mar 2019 23:21:06Tel Aviv City Hall has had to back out of its plan to set up tents to house fans attending the Eurovision song contest in May.

The reason? No firms have responded to a tender to put up the site. The municipality also failed to get the Nature and Parks Authority to support the project, so on Monday it formally canceled the idea.

The city had issued a tender for the project in January in an effort to offer cheaper accommodations than those on offer at the hotels. The plan was to build a temporary campsite in Ganei Yehoshua, within walking distance of the Tel Aviv Expo pavilion where Eurovision 2019 is to be held.

The tent city was also aimed at relieving traffic congestion since the contest’s venue is far from the city center, especially for Saturday’s final round, where public transportation will be an issue since the competition starts very soon after the end of Shabbat. There were hopes of keeping the campsite in place for another two months after the contest, at least through June’s annual Gay Pride festivities.

Several levels of accommodations were going to be offered, from those costing similar to a hostel to holiday apartments. At the cheapest level the price would have come to around 250 shekels a night ($69) for those bringing basic supplies, even a tent, along with them to the site. The next level prices were for “glamping” – for luxurious tents at a higher level of comfort for 600-800 shekels a night. The most expensive was to have come to around 1,000 shekels a night for an air-conditioned trailer home, complete with shower and rest room. The site was to have offered other forms of rest room amenities and showers for other guests, and entertainment centers, food and drink stalls, and a bicycle rental rack, in addition to shuttles back and forth to the Euro Village, the center where the competition is to be held.

After Tel Aviv issued tenders for the planned tent city, Rishon Letzion had plans to follow suit with the aim of reaping some benefits from Eurovision-generated tourism. Rishon had hoped to build a tent city across six dunams and to see about offering shuttles to the competition site in Tel Aviv. But it never followed through on these plans.

The Rishon Letzion Municipality said in response, “The tender isn’t being issued due to scheduling concerns.”

The Tel Aviv Municipality said in response that it is “working to create an extraordinary experience for tourists arriving at Eurovision. Unfortunately the tent city initiative didn’t succeed due to a lack of response by entrepreneurs to the tender. However, the camping idea is but one of an infinite number of initiatives we have planned for Eurovision, which are aimed at easing the way for tourists and helping them enjoy the activities and events the city has to offer.”

The two were shot while driving their car in the city's entrance and were evacuated to the Beit Jala Hospital, the report said. One of the men, Ahmed Jamal Manasra, 26, was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.

Earlier on Wednesday, Palestinian groups in the West Bank have called for a "day of rage" to be held on Friday after three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces overnight Tuesday – two of them shot after throwing explosive devices at soldiers guarding a holy site in Nablus, and the third, suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting attack this week, shot north of Ramallah.

>> Female medic, teen shot in the head: These are the Palestinian deaths the Israeli army is probing

In an announcement on Wednesday, Fatah and other Palestinian factions called for a period of mourning to be declared throughout the West Bank and for crowds to go to points of friction with Israeli soldiers and settlers. West Bank residents were urged to protest at the Beit El checkpoint on Wednesday, while a demonstration at Ramallah's Al-Manara is planned on Thursday.

Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh also said Wednesday that Gaza is preparing for hundreds of thousands to march on the one-year anniversary of the border protests on March 30.

Fourteen Palestinians were lightly wounded Wednesday morning from rubber-tipped bullets and tear gas inhalation during a protest near the Beit El checkpost. Another demonstration is expected to take place Thursday in Ramallah.

General strikes were announced by residents of the West Bank city of Salfit, as well as student organizations, who joined the protests over the killing of Palestinians.

Calls for a "day of rage" are not irregular, and developments over the weekend depend on how much Palestinian security forces will allow protesters to approach friction points with the Israeli army.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/polls-despite-hacking-scandal-gantz-s-party-maintains-margin-over-netanyahu-s-1.7043240
1.7043240Wed, 20 Mar 2019 21:31:26HaaretzWed, 20 Mar 2019 21:31:26Polls released Wednesday by two Israeli channels show the report claiming that Iran hacked the phone of Benny Gantz, who leads the Kahol Lavan political alliance, failing to hurt his electoral fortunes ahead of the April 9 vote.

According to the Channel 12 News poll, if the election were held today, Kahol Lavan would receive 32 of the Knesset's 120 seats – one seat more than in the poll released by the channel on Thursday, thus widening its margin over Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud, down one seat from the previous poll with 27 seats.

In the Channel 13 poll, Kahol Lavan held onto the 31 seats predicted in the channel's poll released last Monday, while Likud got one more seat to reach 29.

>> Gantz & Co. bet on sleaze factor to make them the Four Horsemen of Netanyahu’s Apocalypse

Both polls showed the right-wing bloc still receiving more seats than the center-left bloc, which would mean that Netanyahu, not Gantz, could form a governing coalition.

The Channel 12 poll was conducted on March 20 and surveyed a sample of 500 people representing the Jewish and Arab population in Israel via phone and internet. Its margin of error was 4.4 percent.

The Channel 13 poll was also conducted on March 20 and surveyed 734 people representing the Jewish and Arab population in Israel via phone and internet. Its margin of error was 3.5 percent.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-in-jerusalem-meeting-pompeo-tells-netanyahu-region-needs-candid-dialogue-for-peace-1.7043000
1.7043000Wed, 20 Mar 2019 20:59:46Noa LandauWed, 20 Mar 2019 20:59:51U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday the region needs "candid dialogue" in order to achieve peace, as the two met in Jerusalem to discuss the Iranian threat, energy and regional issues, as part of the latter's Middle East tour.

"If Israel wasn't in the Golan Heights, Iran would be in the Kinneret," Netanyahu said during the meeting, and added it was time to recognize the region as under Israeli sovereignty.

"With a dark wave of anti-Semitism rising in Europe and in the United States, all nations, especially those in the West, must go to the barricades against bigotry," Pompeo said.

"Our challenge is especially urgent as the hot rhetoric of prejudice cloaks itself in the language of the academy, or of diplomacy or public policy. Sadly, we in the United States have seen anti-Semitic language enter even in the halls of our own capital. This should not be," he said.

Also Wednesday, Netanyahu held a summit with Pompeo, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Jerusalem. The prime minister noted as the sixth of its kind, and said it has become "one of the best regional collaborations in the world. We cooperate on everything, from fighting fires to energy."

Netanyahu said the three countries planned on laying a gas pipeline called the East-Med Pipeline from Israel, through Cyprus and Greece, into Europe.

"This will benefit out economies, provide stability and prosperity for our citizens and diversify energy sources in Europe," Netanyahu said, and stressed the importance of Pompeo also participating in the summit. "It symbolizes the fact that the U.S. supports this regional effort."

He said the three nations would openly welcome not only the United States into this cooperation, but also other countries.

Pompeo arrived in Israel Wednesday after visiting Kuwait City, and will conclude his Mideast tour in Beirut at the end of the week.

Kuwait's foreign minister said on Wednesday that a long-awaited U.S. peace proposal for the Middle East should be acceptable to all stakeholders and a factor in regional considerations.

"We hope the plan will take into account the situation in the region and all the relevant parties," Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah said in a joint news conference he held with Pompeo.

"We believe the strong relationship between the United States and several countries will lead to an acceptable resolution to all parties and to reaching a political solution that has been long waited for."

Kuwait currently holds a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council, where it has championed the Palestinian cause.

Pompeo said his talks on Wednesday also focused on enhancing defense and cybersecurity cooperation with Kuwait.

In Jerusalem, the U.S. State Department said in a statement, "the Secretary will also participate in a meeting with Israeli, Cypriot and Greek leaders to discuss key energy and security issues facing the Eastern Mediterranean region” — a reference to the EastMed Project that will allow Israel to pipe natural gas to Europe.

In a press briefing on Friday, a senior State Department official said ahead of Pompeo's visit in Israel: “We’ll be talking about regional issues, obviously, discussing the challenges posed to the region, to Israel, to the United States by Iran and by Iranian proxies. The Secretary will reaffirm both privately and publicly during that visit our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and its right to self-defense.”

The visit, which comes 21 days before Israel's general election, is widely seen as an attempt to boost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political standing. The U.S. administration claims it is not trying to influence the election.

Vangelis Alexandris, a former coach of Thessaloniki’s Iraklis team, said this in an interview last week for the Sportdog site.

Blatt, who coached the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers into the NBA Finals in 2015, began coaching Athens' Olympiacos Piraeus team last year. Last month, Olympiacos players walked out of a game after the first half in an apparent protest of how the referees were calling fouls. The opposing team’s owner said that the forfeit was planned in advance, because Olympiacos ownership “cannot pay their players.”

Former University of Louisville coach Rick Pitino, disgraced after an NCAA scandal involving bribes to players, was coaching the opposing team Panathinaikos, and said he was “very disappointed.”

Blatt told reporters last week that he had no idea about his team’s decision to walk out.

“Blatt thinks he knows everything, this is nothing new. But if we consider he has Jewish blood inside him, I think he is lying about what he said,” Alexandris said of Blatt.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece on Monday condemned Alexandris’ remark that “contains all the ignoble anti-Semitic stereotypes that perpetuate hatred against the Jews,” their statement read.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-this-exhibition-is-an-act-against-the-occupation-too-bad-it-s-so-apologetic-1.7040638
1.7040638Wed, 20 Mar 2019 20:46:07Avi PitchonWed, 20 Mar 2019 20:46:07Entering the Minshar Gallery, the visitor is immediately struck by the unequivocal splendor projected by Oded Yedaya’s exhibition: medium-sized photographic works in black and white, most of them dark, almost monochromatic, their central (albeit not exclusive) thematic focus being Palestinian demonstrations in the West Bank that Yedaya witnessed and took part in. At this point, I implore you not to stop reading, even though you might feel that you’re being invited to exhibition 6,574 about the OCCUPATION.

The generation to which Yedaya (b. 1949) belongs, as an Israeli and as an artist, inspires an a priori lenient prejudice toward his dangerous tightrope walk, the rope being tied on one side to art and on the other to politics. He does not belong to the old mobilized generation of the yishuv, the collective that built the state. Nor is he part of the postmodern milieu of the 1980s and 1990s, which persuaded us that the screwdriver (the language of politics) is the entire toolbox (the language of art). That milieu also forged a discourse that not only nullifies our ability to speak the richer of the two languages, but causes problems for itself in implementing its own agenda. (This is inevitable when the screwdriver forgets it is not in fact the only tool there is.)

Yedaya’s political outlook belongs to a generation in which political language existed in proportion to artistic language, before becoming an agenda-wielding Godzilla. (I’ve stopped counting how many babies it throws out with the bathwater every day.) He can also be placed in the category of artists who underwent a significant apprenticeship abroad (he’s a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York) and returned to Israel with an arsenal that enriched the local scene.

Yedaya left for New York at the beginning of the 1980s and returned in mid-decade. The photographer Shuka Glotman studied in London in the ‘80s and returned to work in Israel as an active artist. There are other kinds of parallels, such as Roi Kuper; like Yedaya, Kuper is kibbutz-born and his photography is fraught with a melancholy splendor that sets it apart, but resonates with Yedaya’s work. Both of them interface to a degree with Glotman’s photography, but less than with each other.

On the avant-garde front, we should mention the artists Uri Katzenstein and Buki Greenberg. The former returned to Israel from New York and the latter from Amsterdam, and what they brought with them contributed a great deal to the transition of Israeli art from the 1980s to the 1990s.

All the artists mentioned so far are men born between the end of the 1940s and the mid-1950s, some with a military combat background – notably Yedaya, who served in the Sayeret Matkal commando unit. In contrast to Greenberg, who became a pacifist during his military service, Yedaya received and still keeps a statuette of esteem from his elite unit; this makes him, as a citizen and as an artist, a kind of faulty Benny Gantz who strayed from his programming and realized that we don’t have such a wonderful country after all.

Is art enough?

Here the plot thickens. The photographer and sculptor Aim Duelle Luski taught at Minshar, the art school that Yedaya and his wife, Ronit, established (they have two daughters, the film director Keren Yedaya and Ella Yedaya, a parliamentary administrator). In 2007, marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war, the scholar Ariella Azoulay exhibited “Act of State: A Photographed History of Occupation” at the Minshar art gallery. Luski and Azoulay are to a considerable extent the architects of the type of politicization that became excessively hegemonic in the Israeli art discourse. It’s a destructive form of politicizing, because their art was and is – how shall we phrase it? – bad. (There’s no room here to address their problematic and impenetrable writing, a local and even less readable branch of the postmodern political thought they imported to Israel.)

“Act of State” was an exemplary model of spoon-feeding an agenda, and in aesthetic terms was no more than a dreary archival presentation. (By the way, Haaretz’s late art critic, Galia Yahav, thought the opposite, writing, when she was a reviewer for Time Out, that it was the best exhibition in Israel’s history.)

It seems as if Yedaya, like other victims on the Israeli art field, was persuaded by Luski and Azoulay of the inferiority of the language of art compared to the language of politics in regard to reality – Israeli and otherwise. Just as Plato ruined the life of a significant segment of Western culture when he maintained that art is an imitation of reality, which is an imitation of the Idea (again there’s no room here, but it’s actually more or less the opposite), Luski and Azoulay ruined Yedaya’s life when they convinced him that activism is the ne plus ultra real thing, and that art is the bourgeois residual – an elitist, privileged luxury, which by way of atonement can only mobilize and contribute to the activist effort.

The interpretive damage done to Yedaya’s rather astonishing artistic expression is discernible both on the walls and in the accompanying text he wrote (the show has no curator). The exhibition contains quite a few powerful personal images (of his wife, of a bride in a Chabad wedding, of an eccentric volunteer in a kibbutz in the 1980s) – for whose presentation Yedaya feels a need to apologize. “The tranquil everyday… is constantly experienced in the face of the injustices,” he writes. He goes on to admit expressly the inferiority of artistic endeavor: “Art does not try to face up to power, but will remain the refuge of the weak observer.”

This sense of enfeeblement and inferiority in the face of reality is manifested in a particularly grotesque (but splendidly shot and with a touch close to genius) display of guilt feelings in a short video loop titled “Acts of Identification.” In it, Yedaya is seen walking barefoot on broken glass and traversing a tangle of thorny cacti with his torso bared. It is simply depressing to see a veteran artist with an impressive body of work doing himself physical injury because he’s been persuaded that art is “not enough.” In fact, art is the necessary and fundamental condition for every potential act of resistance, the broadest possible base not only for change, but for the sheer humanity of us all.

On another wall is a particularly strong series. In one frame, Palestinian youths take up positions ahead of throwing stones; below it is an almost abstract frame of stones hurtling through the air; and to its right a frame of Palestinian boys scuffling/playing in some sort of dilapidated structure, while in the foreground another boy kicks a ball made from an empty stun grenade. And what rounds off this quartet? A photograph of ducks cruising in a pond, titled “Saloniki.” In other words, Yedaya does not succeed in not showing us the contradistinction between the OCCUPATION and his safe, pastoral private life. I don’t get it. Even though he’s been active for more than a decade in solidarity demonstrations in the territories, he doesn’t stop apologizing from the walls of his exhibition, walking on glass and being scratched by thorns. Yet, as an activist he should know that his relatively benign position is what allows him to take meaningful action.

Saved from the abyss

Were it not for all this, it would be possible to indulge in viewing the works themselves. For example, in the use Yedaya makes in some cases of a solarizing effect, which tints the white shades in the photograph silver. It’s a distinctly unfashionable effect, and precisely because of that is marvelous and thrilling; it evokes the aesthetics of the photography annuals edited by Peter Merom, which were published in Israel in the 1960s and the early 1970s. It also recalls Man Ray, had he aimed his lens at a bleeding, handcuffed Palestinian activist, or at a typical boulder-strewn landscape in the West Bank, and not at the faces of women with futuristic hairdos (of a future the Nazis unraveled) in the 1920s.

Despite all this, Yedaya is saved from the political abyss because ultimately, in an overview of his oeuvre, he always photographs his life. By chance, it happened that in the past decade his life was bound up with activism in the territories. He also saves the day with a textual goal during injury time, when he declares explicitly that he is not an Active Stills-style photographer: “I try to create photography that is disconnected from expressing a stand… even with a potential reversal of meanings.” He quotes significant comments written by Hadas Marder about his previous exhibition (2012, Contemporary by Golconda Gallery, Tel Aviv): “The exhibition does not resemble anything… The works give one a stomach ache, not a headache, and that is their political ‘success.’” Precisely.

If you haven’t understood by now, Yedaya’s exhibition, “Black Flag, White Flag,” is a must-see. The screens of gritty monochrome that surround the viewer and the details that gradually emerge from them, are what charge the viewer with strength. Always the aesthetic, never the political. The works empower, the message paralyzes. Viva the stomach ache, death to the headache!

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-2020-democratic-candidate-andrew-yang-takes-a-stand-against-circumcision-1.7043019
1.7043019Wed, 20 Mar 2019 19:42:26JTAWed, 20 Mar 2019 19:42:26Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang may be the first candidate for president of the United States to take a stand against circumcision.

He tweeted against the practice last week, then doubled down on the issue in an interview published Monday in the Daily Beast.

“It’s sort of pushed on parents in many situations,” Yang said in the interview. He added that if he is elected He wants to “inform parents that it is entirely up to them whether their infant gets circumcised, and that there are costs and benefits either way.”

Yang said that he had planned to have his sons circumcised, fearing that they would feel self-conscious if they looked different than their friends.

He said his wife convinced him that they would be fine with their foreskins intact.

The candidate said he would not support a ban on circumcision, however.

A day after the Daily Beast article was published, Yang clarified in a tweet that he supports parents’ decisions to circumcise their child for religious or cultural reasons.

“Just to clarify — I support the freedom of parents to adopt circumcision for any religious or cultural ritual as desired,” he wrote. “Actually have attended a brit milah myself and felt privileged to be there. Thanks Mikael. Always up to parents.”

Yang, 44, is the son of immigrants from Taiwan and identified as an entrepreneur in campaign literature. He is the founder of Venture for America, an organization that helps entrepreneurs create jobs in larger cities.

His campaign is best known for its call for a universal basic income, which it calls The Freedom Dividend, which would pay $1,000 a month to every American adult over the age of 18.

He has met the requirements necessary to appear in the Democratic Party presidential debates, according to The Washington Post.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/kuwait-says-us-mideast-peace-plan-should-be-acceptable-to-all-stakeholders-1.7042960
1.7042960Wed, 20 Mar 2019 19:38:48ReutersWed, 20 Mar 2019 19:38:48Kuwait's foreign minister said on Wednesday that a long-awaited U.S. peace proposal for the Middle East should be acceptable to all stakeholders and factor in regional considerations. U.S. President Donald Trump's special adviser Jared Kushner visited several Gulf Arab states last month - but not Kuwait - to seek support from Arab leaders on the economic portion of the proposal that Trump is expected to unveil in the coming months.

Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, has given a broad outline of the plan, saying it would address final-status issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including establishing borders.

"We hope the plan will take into account the situation in the region and all the relevant parties," Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah told a joint news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

>> Kushner tries to win support for peace plan in Arab world – and inflames Israeli right | Analysis "We believe the strong relationship between the United States and several countries will lead to an acceptable resolution to all parties and to reaching a political solution that has been long waited for."

Kuwait currently holds a non-permanent seat in the U.N. Security Council, where it has championed the Palestinian cause.

Pompeo is on a regional tour that will also take him to Israel and Lebanon. The foreign minister of Kuwait said he had also discussed with Pompeo a Gulf dispute that has fractured the Gulf Arab bloc, as well as Syria, Iran, Iraq and Yemen. The United States and Kuwait have been trying to mediate in the bitter row that has seen Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and non-Gulf state Egypt impose a political and economic boycott on Qatar since June 2017 over allegations it supports terrorism. Doha denies the charges. "We are all working to find a solution. It's not in the best interest of the region, not in the best interest of the world. We need Gulf countries all working together on the complex set of challenges that face each of them," Pompeo said. Sheikh Sabah said "there is no option" other than for the dispute to be resolved.

The United States, an ally of the six-nation Gulf bloc, has said that regional unity is essential for a planned Middle East Strategic Alliance that would serve as a bulwark against Iran. Qatar is home to a major U.S. airbase and Kuwait also hosts U.S. troops. Pompeo said his talks on Wednesday also focused on enhancing defence and cybersecurity cooperation with Kuwait.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/trump-to-host-netanyahu-in-white-house-on-monday-1.7042977
1.7042977Wed, 20 Mar 2019 19:00:47Amir TibonWed, 20 Mar 2019 19:00:47WASHINGTON - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, the White House announced Wednesday, with the two slated to discuss "their countries' shared interests and actions in the Middle East."

The meeting will be held two weeks before the upcoming Knesset election on April 9.

Netanyahu is currently convened with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem as part of the latter's Middle East tour that began in Kuwait City and will conclude in Beirut at the end of the week.

Kuwait's foreign minister said on Wednesday that a long-awaited U.S. peace proposal for the Middle East should be acceptable to all stakeholders and a factor in regional considerations.

"We hope the plan will take into account the situation in the region and all the relevant parties," Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah said in a joint news conference he held with Pompeo.

Trump said last month that Netanyahu "has done a great job as prime minister" and called him "tough, smart, strong."

Also last month, Trump took to Instagram to share an image posted by Netanyahu of a campaign billboard showing the president and prime minister shaking hands. The billboard reads: "Netanyahu. In Another League," and is just one instance of Netanyahu boasting of his connection with Trump as part of his election campaign.

A senior White House official denied later on Tuesday that the Instagram post is a political endorsement, adding that the Trump administration is not endorsing any candidate in the upcoming election.

"It's no secret that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu have a strong relationship based upon mutual respect and that they reflect the mutual admiration and affection of the American and Israeli people," the official noted.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/.premium-russia-s-planned-exit-from-syria-could-spell-trouble-for-israel-1.7042968
1.7042968Wed, 20 Mar 2019 18:39:57Zvi Bar'elWed, 20 Mar 2019 18:39:57In Syrian President Bashar Assad's palace in Damascus, they had almost no time to clear and reset the tables between all the important guests who came to visit this week. First came Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Another day, it was Iraqi military Chief of Staff Othman al-Ghanmi and his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Hossein Baqeri. Soon, delegations from other Arab nations are expected to arrive to discuss the possibility of inviting Syria to the Arab League summit, scheduled to be held in Tunisia at the end of the month.

Officially, the guests declared they had come to discuss the continued fight against “terrorists,” matters they also could have talked about over the telephone. But the central issue was Russia's next move, which has been keeping everyone occupied. Russian President Vladimir Putin held a working meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Shoigu – and according to reports from both Russia and Syria, Putin instructed them to begin withdrawing Russian forces and to begin with the Air Force deployment at the Khmeimim air base in northwest Syria.

It was reported on Tuesday that the first group of Russian planes, including Sukhoi-34 fighter-bombers, had left Syria and returned to Russia. The next day, it was reported that Russian attack planes that had already returned to Russia, had been sent back Syria – apparently to take part in the campaign for the Idlib region, where tens of thousands of rebels have concentrated.

>> How Assad won in Syria, what Israel gained and what's next for Iran ■ Netanyahu outfoxed Russia, Iran and ISIS with his cynical, ruthless Syria policy

Viktor Ozerov, head of the defense and security committee in the Russian upper house of parliament, estimated that Moscow would leave about 1,000 military personnel in Syria – and it seems that Russia wants to make it clear, particularly to Assad, that Russia’s active military role is nearing its end after it “completed its mission and returned Syria to his control.”

This declaration is not totally accurate, as Idlib province is still waiting for a solution and can be expected to become a brutal battlefield if Turkey does not keep its commitments to Moscow and remove the members of Jabhat al-Nusra and Jish al-Islam present there. These are the two large forces that still have the military power to block Assad from regaining control of all of Syria.

Anger and tension between Russia and Turkey sparked in recent weeks when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Russia to grant another extension without clarifying how he intended on fulfilling his end of the withdrawal agreement. Meanwhile, Russia is pushing to complete the move even through a military operation so it can proceed to the diplomatic stage and end the war.

The one who should be worried about the expected Russian withdrawal is Israel, which sees in Russia the most important guarantor for stopping Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, especially along the border on the Golan Heights. Russia, which did not keep its promise to keep the pro-Iranian forces dozens of kilometers to the east of the border, proposed in August establishing observation points along the border, with the purpose of preventing the entry of foreign forces to the border area – but only now has it completed the construction of a single observation point manned by Russian military police.

The Russian statement said that five more surveillance bases along the border will be ready for operation soon, and as far as Moscow is concerned, there is no reason for United Nations observers not to return to these bases and their patrol missions along the “Bravo Line,” which marks the Syrian side of the demilitarized buffer zone established in the separation of forces agreement from 1974 after the Yom Kippur War.

In practice, the UN observers began partially patrolling the border in August, but now it seems that these forces can soon return to carrying out their mission in full. The UN observers's return, when it actually happens, will testify not only to the return of Assad's control of the border, but also to Israel’s agreement that Syrian forces can come up to the Bravo Line – as well as the return to the cease-fire agreements that will force Israel to stop military incursions through this border – a border used by Israel to provide aid to the civilian population across the border.

Israel hopes that the removal of Russian forces will provide Moscow with more leverage over Iran to demand it withdraw its forces – but Tehran has yet to show any sign that it intends on adopting the Russian move.

The official relations between Syria and Iraq are also growing stronger, and this is particularly worrying given the announcement of the intention to reopen the important Al-Qa’im border crossing between the two countries near the city of Al-Bukamal.

Syria and Iraq are connected through three main border crossings. One, near al-Tanf, is controlled by the American forces still in Syria and whose mission is to prevent Iranian forces from entering Syria via Iraq. The second, al-Rabia in the northeast corner of Syria, is controlled – for now – by the Syrian Kurdish forces. The third, the al-Qa’im crossing, is under the control of the Assad regime and could serve as a convenient crossing point not only for Iraqi goods but also for soldiers and weapons from Iran passing through Iraq to Syria.

Syria has been heavily pressuring the Kurds to hand over the territory they control, and has presented them with two possibilities: Reconciliation with the regime, or the use of force against them. Reconciliation means handing over the land they took during their fight against the Islamic State group to the regime in return for a promise to preserve their political status and their rights in the government to be formed after the war's end. If the Kurds do not accept the demands, the regime is expected to open a new front against them that would endanger their chances for a unique status, or at least equal civil rights. The two possibilities guarantee that the northernmost crossing will wind up in the government's hand, which will multiply the risk of weapons flowing from Iraq through Syria to Lebanon.

This shows the importance of the American troop presence in Syria, which guarantees not only the Kurds’ safety from Syrian or Turkish attacks, but also enables Kurdish control over the border crossing. The question now is who will manage to convince U.S. President Donald Trump to leave his troops in Syria, or at least to postpone their withdrawal.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/.premium-palestinians-call-for-day-of-rage-after-israel-kills-three-suspects-1.7042733
1.7042733Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:48:15Jack KhouryWed, 20 Mar 2019 17:48:15Palestinian groups in the West Bank have called for a "day of rage" on Friday after three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces overnight Tuesday – two of them shot after throwing explosive devices at soldiers guarding a holy site in Nablus, and the third, suspected of carrying out a deadly shooting attack this week, shot north of Ramallah.

In an announcement on Wednesday, Fatah and other Palestinian factions called for a period of mourning to be declared throughout the West Bank and for crowds to go to points of friction with Israeli soldiers and settlers. West Bank residents were urged to protest at the Beit El checkpoint on Wednesday, while a demonstration at Ramallah's Al-Manara is planned on Thursday.

Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh also said Wednesday that Gaza is preparing for hundreds of thousands to march on the one-year anniversary of the border protests on March 30.

Meanwhile, thousands participated Wednesday in the Nablus funeral for the two young men killed near Joseph's Tomb, 21-year-old Ra'id Hamdan and 20-year-old Ziyad Nuri, while a general strike was declared in Salfit throughout the day.

Universities in the West Bank ended classes at 10 A.M. and student groups called for protests against Israeli crimes.

The declaration of a day of rage is not an unusual step in the West Bank, but the question is whether anger over the killings will take the form of further protests in the coming days, especially on Friday, and to what extent the Palestinian Authority and its security forces will allow young people to reach points of friction.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-drops-two-places-to-13th-on-world-happiness-index-u-s-ranks-19th-1.7042942
1.7042942Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:37:57Haaretz וThe Associated PressWed, 20 Mar 2019 17:37:57Finland has topped an index of the happiest nations for the second consecutive year, with researchers saying the small Nordic country of 5.5 million has succeeded in generating a happiness recipe for a balanced life not simply dependent on economic and material wealth.

Israel fell fallen two places to thirteenth from last year's eleventh ranking. The United States dropped from the 18th to 19th place despite enjoying a booming economy in the past few years.

The World Happiness Report, produced by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens see themselves to be.

It’s based on factors including economic wealth, life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices and levels of government corruption.

The index, published Wednesday, showed the other Nordic countries did well again this year, with Denmark, Norway and Iceland taking the next spots. The remaining top ten nations were The Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada and Austria.

The 134-page report noted that, in general, happiness levels have decreased worldwide despite continued economic growth. That’s partly explained by “dramatic falls” in happiness in population dense countries like the United States, Egypt and India, it said.

“The worldwide tendency of a considerable decline in average happiness, despite the general growth in GDP per capita, is proof that measuring happiness and life satisfaction in terms of economic wealth alone is not at all sufficient,” said Meik Wiking, CEO of think tank The Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, who took part in the report.

Wiking believes the erosion of happiness in the United States can be blamed on a “social crisis” where many Americans are increasingly feeling that they cannot trust their fellow citizens and feel “they have no one to count on in times of need.”

“The divide between rich and poor also creates an erosion of the cohesion and trust between people, which is so vital for the feeling of safety and security and therefore for the overall happiness level of the American people,” Wiking said.

“By most accounts, Americans should be happier now than ever,” wrote Professor Jean M. Twenge from the San Diego State University, referring to low U.S. unemployment and violent crime rates, improved living standards and income level.

She suggested that a factor could be the substantially increased time Americans are spending on electronic devices and social media, habits that have led to low in-person social interaction and decreased sleeping time, among other things.

The report noted that happiness has declined the most drastically in the past ten years in the 108th placed Venezuela, a South American nation currently in economic turmoil with a severe political crisis.

Out of the bottom ten countries in the index, six are African nations. South Sudan is the least happy country, followed by Central African Republic and Afghanistan.

The report was compiled by prominent economists John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/brexit-crisis-rumors-pm-may-to-address-country-tonight-1.7042913
1.7042913Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:18:53ReutersWed, 20 Mar 2019 17:18:53There are unconfirmed rumors Prime Minister Theresa May will give a speech outside her Downing Street residence on Wednesday evening, the political editor of the Independent newspaper said on Twitter.

Earlier, May asked the EU for a three-month delay to Brexit to buy time to get her twice-rejected divorce deal through parliament, but the request faced immediate resistance from the European Commission.

Britain's parliament will hold an emergency debate on Wednesday on May's decision to request a three-month delay to Brexit, the speaker John Bercow said.

The opposition Labour Party's Brexit spokesman, Keir Starmer, applied for the debate to be held, saying it was vital for parliament to consider the terms of the proposed extension to the Article 50 Brexit negotiation period.

The speaker said the debate would begin shortly and could last up to three hours.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-beto-o-rourke-on-israel-palestine-no-chance-for-peace-with-current-leaders-1.7042783
1.7042783Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:51:00Amir TibonWed, 20 Mar 2019 16:51:00WASHINGTON - Beto O’Rourke, one of the leading presidential contenders within the Democratic Party, said on Tuesday that he doesn’t believe Israel or the Palestinian Authority currently have the right leadership for promoting a peace agreement.

O’Rourke, a former Democratic member of Congress from Texas, addressed the Israeli-Palestinian issue during a visit to New Hampshire, one of the earliest states to vote in next year’s Democratic primary.

While stating he supports a two-state solution to the conflict, O'Rourke said he doesn’t see it happening as long as the current leadership in both Israel and the PA remains in power. “I believe in peace and dignity and full human rights for the Palestinian people and the Israeli people. The only way to achieve that is a two-state solution,” he said.

>> The time Beto O'Rourke got burned on Israel

O’Rourke then explained why he doesn’t see any movement towards peace in the current political climate. “Right now we don’t have the best negotiating partners on either side. We have a prime minister in Israel who has openly sided with racists,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political alignment with the far-right Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party.

He also mentioned Netanyahu’s infamous campaign ad released on Election Day in 2015, in which Netanyahu warned that Israel’s Arab citizens were voting in the election. “He (Netanyahu) warned that the Arab voters are coming to the polls,” O’Rourke said.

“On the Palestinian side,” he added, “we have an ineffectual leader. Mahmoud Abbas has not been very effective in bringing his side to the table.” Abbas has been boycotting the Trump administration for more than a year now, ever since U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he “took Jerusalem off the table” by recognizing the city as the capital of Israel.

Abbas and Netanyahu have not met since October 2016.

During the New Hampshire event, O’Rourke was also asked about donations he had received from pro-Israeli donors during his previous runs for Congress and his attempt to win a Senate seat in 2018. He replied: “If you’re asking if the contributions I accept connect to the policies I support, the answer is no.”

In his first 24 hours as an official presidential candidates, O’Rourke raised more than $6 million for his campaign, mostly from small donors over the internet. No other Democratic candidate running in the current election has managed to raise a similar sum within such a short period of time.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/house-democrat-says-trump-appeared-to-influence-acting-ag-in-cohen-case-1.7042875
1.7042875Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:48:25ReutersWed, 20 Mar 2019 16:48:25A leading House Democrat said on Tuesday that President Donald Trump appears to have influenced former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to raise doubts about the campaign finance case against Trump's former lawyer.

U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said Whitaker described interactions with Justice Department staff about the case against former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, which involved hush money payments to women who claimed to have affairs with Trump, during a March 13 closed-door meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

In a letter on Tuesday to Assistant Assistant Attorney General Steven Engel, Nadler said Whitaker expressed to staff concerns that campaign finance charges against Cohen may have been "specious" and raised "serious questions" about the theory of the case overseen by federal prosecutors in New York.

Whitaker also had concerns about U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman's recusal from the case, saying the terms of the recusal were "convoluted," according to the letter.

"It is reasonable to believe that this activity - the questions Mr Whitaker asked about Mr Cohen's case, and the manner in which he asked them - reflected fears about the case that were likely expressed to Mr Whitaker by the president himself," Nadler said.

Whitaker appeared never to have taken official action to intervene in the Cohen case, Nadler said.

Officials at the Justice Department and White House were not immediately available for comment.

Cohen pleaded guilty in August to orchestrating the hush money payments, which he said Trump directed him to make.

Nadler's committee, which has jurisdiction over impeachment issues, is trying to determine whether the president has sought to obstruct justice by influencing investigations that involve him.

Trump may have urged Whitaker to Berman in charge of the Cohen case, according to a New York Times report that Trump has denied. Berman, a Trump campaign donor and former law partner of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, is recused from the case.

Nadler said his committee has identified individuals who claim to have direct knowledge of conversations between Whitaker and Trump.

But during their meeting on Capitol Hill, Nadler said Whitaker refused to answer questions about any conversations he may have had with Trump "on the basis that the president may one day want to invoke executive privilege."

Whitaker, who left the Justice Department after Attorney General William Barr's arrival last month, was appointed acting attorney general without Senate confirmation in November after Trump ousted former Attorney Jeff Sessions.

Democrats feared he could interfere with U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Nadler said he accepts that Whitaker never gave the White House "any promises or commitments concerning the Special Counsel's investigation."

Nadler rejected Whitaker's decision not to answer questions because of possible executive privilege. He asked Engel, who heads the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, to determine whether the White House would actually invoke executive privilege.

The names appear to be following a similar prank in the intern listing for the 2018 report, in which “Star Trek” luminaries James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard worked for the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The Twitter account maintained by the council acknowledged the joke Tuesday afternoon.

“Thank you for noticing, our interns are indeed super heroes!” the tweet said. “We’ve thought so all along, but we knew it’d take a little more to get them the attention they deserve. They have made significant contributions to the Economic Report of the President and do so every day at CEA.”

Not all the interns listed are superheroes to be celebrated. In the Star Wars franchise, Jabba the Hutt is a galactic crime lord who tried unsuccessfully to feed Luke Skywalker to the Sarlacc, a sharp-toothed beast that lived in a sand pit.

Martha Gimbel, researcher director for the jobs site Indeed, discovered the list of dubious interns and posted a screenshot of it to Twitter.

Iran earlier this week denied a Turkish announcement that the two countries were carrying out a joint operation against the PKK.

Turkey's military regularly carries out air strikes against PKK militants in northern Iraq and has carried out operations to arrest alleged members of the group inTurkey. The PKK is deemed a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union.

Two Turkish soldiers were killed and eight others were wounded on Saturday in a clash during operations into northern Iraq,Turkey's defense ministry said.

8 years of war in Syria: Assad Won Syria's Civil War. Can he Now Survive an Israeli Attack? | Doctor, 'Butcher,' President: The Journey of Syria's Infamous Leader | How Assad defied the odds, won in Syria and pushed the U.S. out

In a separate phone call Turkish and Iranian deputy interior ministers welcomed the stage reached in the joint operations, the ministry said.

Earlier this week Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey and Iran were carrying out a joint operation against the PKK, describing it as the first of its kind, but an Iranian source said Iran's armed forces were not part of the operation.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-pompeo-arrives-in-israel-to-discuss-iran-threat-energy-and-regional-issues-1.7042744
1.7042744Wed, 20 Mar 2019 16:00:43Amir Tibon וDPAWed, 20 Mar 2019 16:00:43U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Israel Wednesday to discuss the Iranian threat, energy and regional issues, as part of a Middle East tour that began in Kuwait City and will conclude in Beirut at the end of the week.

Kuwait's foreign minister said on Wednesday that a long-awaited U.S. peace proposal for the Middle East should be acceptable to all stakeholders and a factor in regional considerations.

"We hope the plan will take into account the situation in the region and all the relevant parties," Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah said in a joint news conference he held with Pompeo.

"We believe the strong relationship between the United States and several countries will lead to an acceptable resolution to all parties and to reaching a political solution that has been long waited for."

Kuwait currently holds a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council, where it has championed the Palestinian cause.

Pompeo said his talks on Wednesday also focused on enhancing defense and cybersecurity cooperation with Kuwait.

In Jerusalem, the U.S. State Department said in a statement, "the Secretary will also participate in a meeting with Israeli, Cypriot and Greek leaders to discuss key energy and security issues facing the Eastern Mediterranean region” — a reference to the EastMed Project that will allow Israel to pipe natural gas to Europe.

In a press briefing on Friday, a senior State Department official said ahead of Pompeo's visit in Israel: “We’ll be talking about regional issues, obviously, discussing the challenges posed to the region, to Israel, to the United States by Iran and by Iranian proxies. The Secretary will reaffirm both privately and publicly during that visit our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security and its right to self-defense.”

The visit, which comes 21 days before Israel's general election, is widely seen as an attempt to boost Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political standing. The U.S. administration claims it is not trying to influence the election.

A report in Iran's state-run IRNA news agency cited Qasem as accusing Israel of playing "blame game and promoting hype" in the wake of Israeli reports that Iranians had tapped the phones of ex-general Benny Gantz, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara and son Yair.

According the report, Qasem said the Israeli claims were made out of "hostility, malice and to promote Iranophobia," also placing the blame on U.S. officials. The Iranian official went on to blast the reports, calling them an attempt to "unprofessionally" attribute any incident to Iran.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said on Wednesday that the reason Gantz is "panicking" is that Iran "stole important things from him."

"Benny Gantz," Netanyahu said in his Jerusalem office, "what are you hiding from the Israeli public? What do the Iranians know about you that you are keeping from us?"

Netanyahu continued: "How will you confront Iran, our number one enemy, when Iran has sensitive material on you? This is not gossip, it's a matter of state security. The only way you will not be blackmailed is for you to reveal it all."

>> Read more: How Israel's Iran hacking scandal could ensure Netanyahu's reelection ■ An Iranian hacking that could become an assault on Israeli democracy | Editorial ■ No one knows what was on Gantz's phone, but we know whom the scandal benefits | Analysis

Last week, journalist Amit Segal broke the news on Israel's Channel 12 news that Gantz, the chairman of the Kahol Lavan political alliance, was the victim of Iranian hacking.

The report, which was confirmed by Gantz's party, said that two officials from Israel's Shin Ben security service apparoached the former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff six weeks ago and informed him that the private device was breached.

The two told Gantz that the Iranians hacked into one of his devices during the election campaign and are in possession of the contents of his phone. They warned him that the breach was a security risk, seeing as Iran might unveil information it finds on his cellphone after the election, or tamper with the election process.

On Monday, Channel 12 reported that information from former Prime Minister Ehud Barak's computer and cellphone was purchased by Iran after hackers accessed the devices. According to sources, Tehran did not hack the devices.

Nadav Argaman, the head of the Shin Bet, had reportedly informed Barak of the breach several months ago. According to the channel's sources, the breach was not a result of carelessness on the part of Barak and the stolen content did not contain embarrassing information.

The next day, a report in The Independent, a Saudi publication, said Iran had hacked the phones of Sara and Yair Netanyahu in an attempt to eavesdrop on conversations with the premier.

The Prime Minister's Office responded to the report, stating that after checking the claims with security officials, it was clear that the report was false.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium.MAGAZINE-jews-seen-as-all-about-the-benjamins-for-2-000-years-new-exhibition-shows-1.7042098
1.7042098Wed, 20 Mar 2019 15:05:52Daniella PeledWed, 20 Mar 2019 15:05:52LONDON — Of all the myths about Jews, perhaps the most persistent involves money. It’s a prejudice that remains almost mainstream. In February, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar tweeted that U.S. support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins” (a reference to the $100 bill, adorned by Benjamin Franklin’s face).

A new exhibition at the Jewish Museum London, “Jews, Money, Myth” (running through July 7), explores this theme head-on, taking it to some unpleasant as well as surprising places.

>> 'Stop whining about your Holocaust already': What happens when Europe's Jews call out anti-Semitism | Opinion ■ Where did the myth of ‘Jewish success’ come from anyway?

Tucked away in a side street in the North London neighborhood of Camden Town, the museum is scrupulously inclusive of all streams of Judaism, from liberal to Orthodox — and similarly eclectic in its choices of subject. A 2015 exhibition on Jews and blood trod comparably sensitive territory.

“We see this as a chance to use thought-provoking pieces from the collections and from loans to tackle different questions and bring nuance and subtlety into the debate,” the museum’s chief executive, Abigail Morris, tells Haaretz.

Most visitors to the museum aren’t Jewish — “I think of us as a very important place in challenging anti-Semitism through knowledge and information,” she says.

The exhibition was developed with the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck College, whose director David Feldman agrees that “it’s important for Jews to confront rather than avoid this issue.”

“There are two dangers we strove to avoid: Being apologetic, or reducing this to an anti-defamation campaign — although there is a myth-busting element to this,” he says.

So the exhibition explores the Jewish relationship to material wealth and charity as much as it does anti-Semitic prejudice. There’s more than 2,000 years of history here, from ancient Jewish coins and artifacts used for pidyon haben, or the redeeming of the firstborn, to board games depicting Jewish greed and internet memes.

A lot of darkness

It starts with an 11th-century letter from the Cairo Geniza — the famous collection of Jewish manuscript fragments. In that letter, a blind, impoverished Jew appeals to the community to pay for him to be reunited with his wife and children. Medieval documents in Hebrew and English show Jews and Gentiles happily doing business together, too.

An exhibition highlight is a Rembrandt painting “Judas Returning the Thirty Pieces of Silver,” from a private collection. “The lenders, who are not Jewish, thought the idea of the exhibition was very important and inspiring,” Morris says.

The Dutch master’s representation shows a more compassionate side to the disciple reviled for his betrayal and connection to money, which Morris explains was once not an unusual position to take: “Judas is not seen as evil until the Middle Ages, when the church developed this myth around him as a way of stopping Christians lending money.”

There’s a deliberate counterbalance to the anti-Semitic tropes with artifacts such as an intricately carved wooden “charity lottery wheel” from London’s Great Synagogue, and tallies from an East London soup kitchen set up to serve impoverished Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in the 19th century.

But there’s a lot of darkness here too. A copy of “The Humble Addresses of Menasseh Ben Israel” — the 1655 plea by a Dutch Jew for Oliver Cromwell to allow the Jews to return to England, which emphasizes the economic benefits his community would bring to the Commonwealth – is partnered with a diatribe written a few years later by a German author insisting that the Jews’ real intention in returning was to convert London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral into a synagogue.

One drawing attacks a Rothschild banker simultaneously for being rich and for being a peddler of old clothes, while another poster lambastes Jews for being both communists and capitalists.

“The point is to show how both tropes reproduce in time and mutate to take on new meanings,” Feldman says.

Capitalist and communist

Unsurprisingly, the myth of the money-grabbing Jew makes its way into numerous pieces of propaganda, especially from the Nazi era.

There are fake dollar bills the Germans dropped on France that, when unfolded, reveal a diatribe on the greed of the Jews. There are numerous examples of Jews as simultaneously greedy capitalists and communist monsters: One fascinating poster from Nazi-occupied Serbia depicts a sleepily happy Jew in between a hammer and a sickle and a pile of moneybags.

Morris’ favorite display is one she contributed herself. Bought during a trip to Krakow last December, one display case is filled with “lucky Jews” — little clay figurines of Orthodox Jews clutching a shiny coin, which are popular across Poland.

When Morris pointed out to the vendor that some people might find them offensive, she was told not to worry: “We turn them upside down on the Jewish Sabbath and all the luck and money comes to us!”

The exhibition comes at a febrile time for British Jews, with anti-Semitism scandals continuing to rack the Labour Party. A number of its lawmakers have broken away, citing anti-Semitism to form their own parliamentary group; and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has launched an inquiry into whether the party discriminated against people because of their “ethnicity and religious beliefs.”

It’s an unspoken leitmotif of this exhibition.

An 1840s print depicting a fat, leering Jewish banker standing in a sack of money and pouring coins into the hands of world leaders is presented, to devastating effect, alongside a notorious mural by the American street artist Mear One: The 2012 painting in east London of hook-nosed, gray-bearded bankers playing a game of Monopoly on the backs on the poor was removed later that year after an outcry over what seemed flagrant anti-Semitism.

“Non-Jews might not quite understand why an image like this is anti-Semitic,” Morris says. By the exhibition presenting it this way, “they can see where the imagery comes from. Most anti-Semitism comes from ignorance rather than hatred — at least, that’s my hope,” she adds.

But the controversy resurfaced last year when a Facebook comment by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn praised the mural and favorably compared it to the groundbreaking work of Diego Rivera.

Then there’s a handbill advertising a 1962 rally by a British neo-Nazi party featuring a fat Jew beating Labour and Conservative politicians into submission with the tagline “The meeting the Jews want banned.”

Like the Mear One mural, it’s impossible not to be reminded of the current argument edging into mainstream discourse that Jews are trying to shut down political debate. Groups such as Labour Against the Witchhunt and Jewish Voice for Labour have been formed for the sole purpose of defending the party against these supposedly bad faith accusations.

Feldman was also deputy chairman of the 2016 Chakrabarti Inquiry into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. The subsequent report found the party was not “overrun by anti-Semitism,” but noted an “occasionally toxic atmosphere.” In the three years since, the situation has only gotten worse.

But Feldman emphasizes that “these associations of Jews with money and corruption don’t necessarily have a political home.”

As he puts it, “There is a reservoir of ideas and imagery which lies within the culture, and some people will draw on them consciously and some unconsciously whenever Jews are made the subject of political discourse or controversy. It can happen on the right — at present it’s more visible on the left.”

The exhibition ends with a video installation from British artist Jeremy Deller: A compilation of tropes about Jews and money, from vile internet memes to supposedly benign computer games and clips from “Family Guy.” It also includes Donald Trump grinning as he tells Republican Jews they won’t support him “because I don’t want your money.” Morris has watched the video countless times, but says she still winces when she hears his words.

Many people told Morris they were worried that an exhibition of this kind would be offensive and would risk reinforcing stereotypes. It’s true, she says, that “it’s a difficult subject to talk about. But the anti-Semitic jokes have not gone away.”

“He spoke out against apartheid in South Africa when crazily that was an unpopular thing to do and even today he speaks out against apartheid-like conditions in Palestine even though it’s not popular,” Shaun King said in the video posted Monday on the presidential campaign’s Facebook page.

King, a columnist and activist, spoke at the formal launch of Sanders’ campaign on March 2. The video breaks away from King’s speech to a highlighted online CNN headline, “Bernie Sanders smashes the Israel status quo.”

Sanders, I-Vt., has been among the Senate’s most trenchant Israel critics, releasing multiple videos last year decrying Israel’s use of lethal weapons to end protests and riots on the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

Sanders was the first Jewish candidate to win major nominating contests when he ran for the Democratic nomination in 2016.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-these-expat-israelis-are-flying-home-especially-to-vote-bibi-out-they-hope-1.7038892
1.7038892Wed, 20 Mar 2019 14:29:50Danielle ZiriWed, 20 Mar 2019 14:29:52NEW YORK — Ever since she’s been of voting age, Noa Shusterman hasn’t missed an Israeli election. So even though the 30-year-old has been living in New York for the past two and a half years, she knew this time wouldn’t be any different.

“As someone who’s very involved politically and constantly follows what is going on in Israel, this was very important to me,” the Kfar Sava native tells Haaretz, “and I think it’s my civic democratic duty to go and vote.”

Unlike many other countries, Israel does not allow its hundreds of thousands of citizens abroad to cast absentee ballots (only official Israeli emissaries stationed overseas can do so). Estimates of how many Israelis reside in the United States are varied, and range from 100,000 to 1 million. But Steven J. Gold, the author of “The Israeli Diaspora,” writes that Israeli expatriates often become “transnationalists,” moving fluidly between their homeland and adopted country.

Shusterman came to New York in 2016, studying for a masters in international relations at New York University. She has been working for a local group organizing student trips to Israel since graduating in 2018, but the terms of her scholarship require her to return to Israel this summer.

“I never really left Israel,” she says. “Whoever gets elected, I’m going to be living under the new government — so it’s very important to me to make use of that small right that I have” to vote.

Ido Dembin, who has lived in New York for 18 months, is another Israeli who decided to travel home for the April 9 election. Voting “is fundamentally and essentially very important to me,” he says. “I have the opportunity to influence what my country will look like in the future, especially at a time when I would like for things to change, so I feel obligated to take that chance.”

For 42-year-old Kobi Cohen, April 9 is also a chance to bring about change. He moved to the United States eight years ago with his wife and two young sons for a job in logistics, but quickly realized he had to “go where the heart was” and switched to working for an organization that connects Israelis and American Jews through culture.

“I’m a big believer in the democratic system,” says Cohen. “It’s important for me to go vote because I want to move back. ... Physically I am here, but my heart is in Israel. Voting in elections is not only the most important right we have, but it’s also the most important duty we have.”

For all of these Israelis, spending several hundred (if not several thousand) dollars just to go to the polls next month was an obvious decision — although the fact their employers understand their desire to vote and gave them time off made it all somewhat easier.

Connect IL, a group that organizes educational and cultural events for Israelis in New York in order to retain their connection to Israel, has been encouraging them to fly home for Election Day.

“It’s an activism tool aiming to call on Israelis to plan their vacations around the election,” explains Rotem Lev-Zwickel, the group’s co-founder. “If we are already going for Passover, or if we already plan to go to Israel once a year, let’s make sure it’s around the election.”

As part of the efforts, Connect IL produced a short, humorous video (in Hebrew) with the message: “Plan your vacation around the election.”

“The goal is not to steer people right or left; we really are not political,” Lev-Zwickel stresses. “But if [Israel’s] future is important to you and you see a connection and a possibility that someday you’ll go back, then go and vote. Those people are our target audience.”

Driving factors

Although he’s always supported the Labor Party, Dembin doesn’t know who he will vote for this time around. “I’m skeptical about the chances of that happening, but I’d really want to change the current government,” he says.

In a regular election, the topics that drive his choice are ideological, ranging from “security and diplomacy to civil issues and economic issues, in that order. But in this election, most of all it’s important for me that Israel stays a democracy afterward.”

Cohen, who calls himself “left-wing” and even writes a regular column in an Israeli newspaper, says that living abroad has opened his eyes to issues he believes require major change — such as the important role American Jews play for Israel.

“U.S. Jews are our rock and I think this current government is damaging that, and in a way has divorced the community here, favoring evangelicals out of short-sighted political considerations,” he says. Cohen admits that he “loathes” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: “People make mistakes, but he is such a morally rotten person. The corruption under him, the lack of morality in the Likud party right now — that’s not the direction I want to see Israel go. ... We are the people of the book, we should be holding ourselves to a higher standard.”

He says he is leaning toward Avi Gabbay and the Labor Party, “because they are the only ones right now speaking in a clear voice about changing priorities and changing the current government. To say there is nobody to vote for is to free yourself of responsibility,” he adds. “It just weakens the political system.”

Shusterman says her first priority when voting is to put an end to “the complete freeze on everything that has to do with a diplomatic peace process.” She admits she always finds herself hesitating before casting her ballot, but ultimately has consistently voted for Meretz over the years.

Even though she would love to see Netanyahu replaced, Shusterman says this is not her prime motivation for voting. “Every election there is a sort of fatalism where people say, ‘These elections are really going to determine our future,’” she says. “Well, every election determines our future.

“My democratic and civic right does not depend on Netanyahu,” she adds. Voting “is important to me either way.”

‘Staying home is like voting for Netanyahu’

“I am very frustrated with the government in Israel right now,” says a young Israeli woman who works for Google in Silicon Valley.

The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, has been living in California for seven years. She and her husband decided to fly back for the election, bringing their two young daughters with them. They plan on moving back to Israel within a year or two.

Despite the expensive tickets and two 15-hour flights with small kids, she believes voting this year is critical.

“The Netanyahu government, which incites the country to racism, the incomprehensible cruelty of the occupation — these are things I have a hard time with,” she says. “It scares me to live in a place like this, and to raise my kids in a place like this. If there is any chance to replace this government — I almost don’t even care whom with — I’ll take it.

“I feel that, this time, staying at home is like voting for Netanyahu,” she adds.

The debate over whether Israel should allow absentee voting gets reignited with every election cycle. Yet another initiative was presented in 2016, but the Central Elections Committee opposed the bill, citing logistical, financial and practical obstacles.

Although absentee ballots would save expats the expense and hassle of flying home just to vote, not everyone believes it’s the right move.

“Perhaps if we created specific criteria according to which a citizen living outside of Israel for just a year, or who left, like me, to study, would get the right to vote from here,” says Dembin. “But people who have lived here for 10 years or more and still want to influence a country which they are not a part of and don’t live in — that doesn’t sound right to me.”

For some Israelis, though, flying back to vote invokes some internal conflict. The woman from Silicon Valley said she “somewhat ashamed” of her decision to do so, which is why she prefers to remain anonymous.

“As an Israeli who has lived outside of Israel for many years now, I feel it isn’t completely my right to vote,” she explains. “Of course I have a legal right to, but I am not sure it’s legitimate or even moral. There are so many Israelis here who plan to go back to Israel within two years but then never do, and it’s not really fair for them to vote.”

Cohen, meanwhile, says that “giving everyone the right to vote from abroad is nice on paper. But in practice I think that’s a waste of money. I think people for whom it’s important to vote should fly over to vote.”

But Shusterman counters that saying Israelis can just hop on a plane and go vote is somewhat condescending. “I’m well aware that me going to vote has to do with the fact that I have the financial means to do it, the ability to take time off work, and that I’m not married and don’t have children. I don’t have to take a babysitter; I don’t have debt; I don’t have a mortgage to pay,” she says. “That’s privilege, but ultimately we are talking about a democratic right.

“At the end of the day, we all speak Hebrew, we listen to the latest [popular Israeli musicians] Static and Ben-El song when we come home, and we go to Shabbat dinners with the Israeli community. So what if it’s happening in New York and not in Israel?” she asks. “What happens in Israel still affects my life.”

Trump tweeted, "George Conway, often referred to as Mr. Kellyanne Conway by those who know him, is VERY jealous of his wife’s success & angry that I, with her help, didn’t give him the job he so desperately wanted. I barely know him but just take a look, a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell!"

Conway quickly replied: "You. Are. Nuts."

Trump and Conway have been trading barbs on Twitter in the past few days since Trump 2020 reelection campaign manager, Brad Parscale, suggested George Conway only criticizes the president because he is “jealous” of his wife.

Parscale was responding to Conway’s suggestion on Twitter over the weekend, following a bizarre 48 hours of tweets from Trump, that the president was mentally ill.

Trump himself, never one to shy away from personal attacks or Twitter, retweeted Parscale with the comment, “A total loser!” Conway then replied saying, "Congratulations! You just guaranteed that millions of more people are going to learn about narcissistic personality disorder and malignant narcissism! Great job!"

The war of words began when Conway wrote, "*All* Americans should be thinking seriously *now* about Trump's mental condition and psychological state, including and especially the media, Congress—and the Vice President and Cabinet."

Conway then tweeted screengrabs showing the medical definitions of narcissistic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Kellyanne Conway publicly disagreed with her husband over Trump for the first time, saying, "No, I don't share those concerns."

Parscale tweeted on Monday, “We all know that @realDonaldTrump turned down Mr. Kellyanne Conway for a job he desperately wanted. He barely worked @TheJusticeDept and was either fired/quit, didn’t want the scrutiny? Now he hurts his wife because he is jealous of her success. POTUS doesn’t even know him!”

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-the-odd-history-of-purim-1.5332554
1.5332554Wed, 20 Mar 2019 14:27:56Elon GiladWed, 20 Mar 2019 14:27:58Purim is the most mysterious of Hebraic holidays. It suddenly appeared in the second century BCE, though many Jews ignored it for centuries. And the origin of the holiday, let alone its flagship text - the Book of Esther - are just as baffling.

The first reference to Purim is in the deuterocanonical book Maccabees II (15:32), which merely says that on the 14th of the Jewish month of Adar, Jews celebrated a holiday called "Mordecai Day." Clearly the holiday was celebrated in at least some Jewish communities as early as 124 BCE, when this book was written in Alexandria.

Double shot - Purim and St. Patrick's Day collide (tipsily) this year

The Jewish historian Josephus, writing in the first century CE also mentions the holiday, noting that it was widely celebrated.

Yet it seems the holiday failed to gain acceptance by all Jews until the early Middle Ages. For example, Esther is the only megillah not found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, indicating that the desert community didn’t consider it canonical. Yet the Mishnah tells that at least from the time of the Bar Kochba revolt (132–136 CE), reading the Book of Esther on Purim was considered a mitzvah.

Check out Haaretz’s interactive map of Purim celebrations across Israel.

But is it Jewish?

The Talmud itself refers to some who doubted whether Purim should be celebrated as a Jewish holiday. Still, clearly by the time of the Mishnah and Talmud, Purim was ascendant: More translations and exegeses of the Book of Esther can be found in this period than on any other biblical text.

The holiday's origin is heatedly disputed. A number of pagan holidays - Greek, Persian, Assyrian and Babylonian - have been suggested as candidates, but none really suits.

The story of the Book of Esther as it appears in the Hebrew Bible is as follows: Ahasuerus, king of Persia, wants his wife Vashti to show off her beauty before his guests. She refuses. Ahasuerus’ servants hold an ancient version of “The Bachelor,” bringing the most beautiful women of the kingdom. One is Esther, the eponymous hero of the book, an orphan raised by her uncle Mordecai.

After his niece becomes queen, Mordecai discovers a palace plot to assassinate Ahasuerus. He tells the king, who has the plotters killed.

At about this period, one of the king’s viziers Haman rises to supremacy. Everyone, including the other viziers, must bow before him. Mordecai refuses. Furious, Haman somewhat overreacts, deciding not only to have Mordecai killed but all of the kingdom’s Jews as well. To choose a propitious day to hold this genocide, he holds a lottery and the 13th of Adar is chosen.

Hearing of this, Mordecai urges Esther to talk to the king and have him rescind the execution orders sent throughout the kingdom. Although approaching the king uninvited was perilous, Esther fasts for three days, then does it, inviting him and Haman to a banquet.

At the banquet, the king asks Esther what she wanted. She wants only one thing: that he and Haman come to another banquet the next day.

That night, the king couldn't sleep. Presumably to help him relax, he asks his servants to read to him from the kingdom chronicles.

As it happened, the servants read how Mordecai saved him from certain death. He asks how Mordecai was rewarded and is told - he wasn’t.

The next morning Haman rushes into the king’s chamber to ask for permission to execute his evil plot, but the king preempts him ״What shall be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honor?” Haman, thinking the king was talking about him, told him that such a man should be paraded in the streets of the capital on a horse in splendor with a man walking in front announcing that this is what happens to men who the king “delighteth to honor.”

Naturally, he was frustrated when the king ordered that be done to Mordecai, not to him, but he carried it out as commanded.

That night he went to Esther’s banquet, where Esther told Ahasuerus about Haman’s plot. The king stormed out in anger.

Later, Haman went to Esther’s room to beg for mercy but as he lay prostrate on her bed begging, the king walked in and mistook what he has seen as an attempt by Haman to rape his wife. He ordered Haman be hanged, and ordered that Jews throughout the kingdom protect themselves from those who come to kill them, as the orders could not be rescinded any more.

On the 13th of Adar and on the next day, Jews around the kingdom killed thousands of their attackers. But they themselves were saved.

An elaborate fairy tale?

The historicity of this story is highly contested. Proponents note the great detail in dates, names and objects mentioned, even to seemingly unimportant aspects of the story. They also argue that the description of court life fits what we know about the Persian court from other sources.

But it's still unlikely. No other ancient texts tell anything like this story, critics snort. Nor does Ahasuerus' character fit any of the known Persian monarchs (though some supporters think he's Artaxerxes). And the most convincing argument against the story's veracity is that a Persian king would have never married an orphan of unknown parentage.

The Mishnah is the first text to prescribe how Purim is to be celebrated - the Book of Esther is to be read in public. The Talmud (redacted 500 CE) augments the tradition of reading the Book of Esther in public with drinking wine, making merry - and giving gifts to the poor. That is prescribed in the Book of Esther itself, but seems to be a later addition to the book. Neither that practice nor the name "Purim" itsef appear in the earlier version of the Book of Esther, which we know from the Greek translation in the Septuagint, dating from the second century BCE.

Of special importance in the Talmud is drinking wine on Purim. We are told one should drink so much that one can't tell the difference between the evil Haman and the good Mordecai.

Sometime in the late 5th century, celebrating Jews began to burn Haman in effigy. This often got them in trouble with their Christian neighbors, who sometimes thought the effigy burnt was of Jesus. This tradition has died out.

A later tradition, that of fasting on the day before Purim in commemoration of Esther’s fast, called Taanit Esther, first appears in the writings of Rabbi Akha in the late 6th century.

It was the Tosafists, German and French rabbis of the 13th Century who first mention the act of making noise to blot out the name of Haman (with noise) while reading the Book of Esther in public. At first this was done by stomping one’s feet. Later people started using ratchets (also known as groggers).

Enter the Batman costume

But the most widely observed Purim traditions are dressing up and masquerading. These began in 13th century Renaissance.

Purim is celebrated at roughly the same time as the Venice Carnival and other Italian celebrations that began at about that period. First to mention these traditions was Kalonymus ben Kalonymus, who wrote of this tradition with some contempt. Still, it spread from Italy to the rest of the Jewish world within two or three centuries.

Baking "hamentachen" "(Haman pockets") stuffed cookies began in Europe during the early modern period. At first these were filled with poppy seeds: today Israeli bakers vie to be creative.

In 18th-century Eastern Europe a tradition of performing whimsical plays called Purim spiels began. That birthed a tradition still carried out in some communities.

In Israel, in the 20th century a new tradition was formed - the Adloyada. This is a street parade featuring floats. The first Adloyada was held in Tel Aviv in 1912.

This article was originially published in March 2015 and updated March 2019

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/putin-makes-joke-about-jews-and-money-speaks-hebrew-1.7041106
1.7041106Wed, 20 Mar 2019 14:22:07JTA וMarcy OsterWed, 20 Mar 2019 14:22:08Russian President Vladimir Putin made a joke invoking the anti-Semitic trope about Jews and money during a visit with local residents and religious leaders in Crimea on Monday.

When a local Jewish leader made a comment about financial difficulties, Putin replied: “So the Jews have problems with finances! Only such a thing could happen in Crimea.” He also said to the bearded and black-hatted Jewish man in Hebrew, “toda raba,” or thank you very much.

The exchange was first reported in English in a tweet by Washington Post Moscow correspondent Anie Ferris-Rotman, who included a video of the exchange.

Putin also proposed inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the opening of a synagogue in Sevastopol, after offering to invite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the opening of a Crimean Mosque.

He also stated that the Jewish community of Russia was making a large contribution to the country’s development.

“I hope that Jews in Crimea will play the same positive role. Judaism is also among our traditional denominations, traditional religions, and I am very pleased that religious life is developing here, in Crimea,” the president said.

They dress up to synagogue, the kids dress up for school and everyone dresses up for costume parties. Haaretz employees take this custom quite seriously, showing up at the news desk wearing anything from silly wigs to Batman ears and cape. But why?

Dressing up, costumes, and masks aren’t mentioned in the Book of Esther. There is no indication that anyone ever dressed up for Purim in the Mishnah, Talmud, or in the literature of the Gaonim. Nor is the practice so much as mentioned in the writings of Rashi and Maimonides in the High Middle Ages. So where did it come from?

The earliest reference to dressing up on Purim is in a poem by Provençal Jewish writer Kalonymus ben Kalonymus in the 14th century. Kalonymus had strong ties with Italian Jewry and evidently learned of the practice while living in Rome. He seems to be critical of the practice, though he does not specify why.

As for masks on Purim, we find the first record in the 15th century, by the Paduan rabbi Judah Minz, who is also critical of the practice.

Dressing up on Fat Tuesday

So, it seems that the tradition originated with Italian Jews in the 14th century. But why actually would they start dressing up on Purim?

The custom seems to have originated in the Italian practice starting in the 13th century, of holding carnivals in the days leading up to Lent. They were especially festive on "Fat Tuesday," (also called "Shrove Tuesday"), the day before Lent began.

These wild pre-Lenten carnivals included masquerading, and happened to take place more or less on the same time as Purim, give or take a few weeks, due to differences between the Catholic solar calendar and the Jewish Lunar calendar.

Since Jews were already holding banquets on Purim since the time of the Talmud, banquets that included heavy drinking, it isn’t surprising that some of the carnival atmosphere got infused into the merrymaking of Purim. And with time, the tradition of dressing up on Purim spread from Italy to other Jewish communities around the world - despite the fact that rabbis often remained critical of the practice.

Rabbis were especially appalled by men dressing up as women and vice versa, since cross-dressing is explicitly forbidden in the Bible (Deuteronomy 22:5): “A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall a man put on a woman's garment." Yet some Jews continued to cross-dress on Purim, leading some rabbis to allow the practice on Purim despite the biblical censure.

Once the tradition of dressing up on Purim had firmly gelled, some effort was seems to have been made to explain the tradition retroactively. For example, some rabbinical teachers argue that Esther was hiding her Jewish identity when she married King Ahasuerus (better known in the West as Xerxes) – which was a kind of costuming. Others argue that God’s work is "hidden" in the actions of men throughout the Book of Esther (which makes no mention of God) - once again a kind of dressing up. There are other such unpersuasive arguments. Don’t be fooled though. Apparently, it’s really because of Lent.

This article was originially published in March 2015 and updated March 2019

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/eurovision/MAGAZINE-in-photos-tel-avivians-learn-how-to-be-polite-ahead-of-eurovision-2019-1.7041982
1.7041982Wed, 20 Mar 2019 14:00:32HaaretzWed, 20 Mar 2019 14:00:32https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/islamic-state-fighters-pinned-on-syrian-riverbank-warplanes-fly-above-1.7042455
1.7042455Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:45:28ReutersWed, 20 Mar 2019 13:45:28Warplanes flew near Baghouz in eastern Syria early on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, as the final remnants of the Islamic State group held a narrow strip of land along the Euphrates in a last-ditch defence of its dwindling territory.

Defeat there would signal the end of the ultra-hardline Islamist movement's control in eastern Syria, having held more than a third of Syria and Iraq at one point in 2014 as it sought to carve out a huge caliphate in the region.

On Tuesday, the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had driven the remaining Islamic State fighters in the town of Baghouz from a makeshift encampment that had represented most of its remaining territory.

8 years of war in Syria: Assad Won Syria's Civil War. Can he Now Survive an Israeli Attack? | Doctor, 'Butcher,' President: The Journey of Syria's Infamous Leader | How Assad defied the odds, won in Syria and pushed the U.S. out

But while the capture of Baghouz, close to the Iraqi border, would mark a significant milestone in Syria's eight-year war and in the battle against the jihadist group, Islamic State remains a threat.

Some of the group's fighters are still holed up in the central Syrian desert and others have gone underground in Iraqi cities to wage an insurgent campaign to destabilise the government.

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the SDF, said late on Tuesday that clashes with the militants at the Euphrates were continuing "in several pockets."

Kubicki, a leader of Germany’s opposition, insisted Grenell’s recent behavior is more than enough justification for Foreign Minister Heiko Maas to remove him.

"Any U.S. diplomat who acts like a high commissioner of an occupying power must learn that our tolerance also knows its limits," said Kubicki, after Grenell publicly criticized Germany’s military spending.

Carsten Schneider, the chief whip of the SPD, suggested the ambassador was acting like a “brat” and called him a “total diplomatic failure,” according to Financial Times. “With his repeated clumsy provocations Mr. Grenell is damaging the transatlantic relationship,” Shneider added.

Grenell sparked a similar controversy in June of 2018 when he told far-right website Breitbart that he wanted to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe” while serving as U.S. Ambassador to Germany.

In a measure that could anger U.S. President Donald Trump, Germany’s 2020 budget, proposed Monday, foresees a further increase in military spending in 2020 but does not provide a plan for how to reach the NATO target of spending 2 percent of economic output on defence.

The ministry sources said military spending would rise by 2.1 billion euros over a previous plan for 2020, boosting the share of defence spending to 1.37 percent of gross domestic product from 1.25 percent in 2018 and 1.3 percent this year.

"That the German government would even be considering reducing its already unacceptable commitments to military readiness is a worrisome signal toGermany's 28 NATO allies," said U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell.

The military budget is slated to rise to 45.1 billion euros in 2020 from planned spending of 43.2 billion this year, a separate government source said.

However, the share of military spending would drop back to 1.25 percent in 2023, with any further spending increases to be negotiated year by year, the sources said. "We're taking it one step at a time," said one of the sources.

That leaves Germany well below the 2 percent target set by NATO members for 2024, and below the 1.5 percent share that Germany has pledged to meet by that date.

The U.S. president’s son continued, “With the deadline fast approaching, it appears that democracy in the U.K. is all but dead,” referring to the March 29 date when Britain was set to leave the European Union.

The Guardian’s political correspondent, Peter Walker, pointed out that the piece “is *full* of the sort of tropes/code words beloved of conspiracy theorists and the far right.”

Walker was referring to lines like this one: “The people of both the U.K. and the U.S. must reaffirm the decisions they made in 2016 to stand up for themselves against the global elite.”

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton also accused Britain's political establishment Tuesday of failing to implement the result of the 2016 referendum to leave the EU.

May's divorce deal with the EU has been rejected by lawmakers twice already and the government is considering asking the bloc to delay the departure date beyond March 29.

"The people of Britain have voted. When is the political class going to give effect to that vote?" Bolton told Sky News. "The president has been clear that he wants a resolution of this issue that allows the United States and Britain to come to trade deals again. He sees huge opportunity if Britain's status can be resolved."

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-alan-parsons-to-perform-in-tel-aviv-alongside-israel-philharmonic-1.7042242
1.7042242Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:11:23Aya Chajut Wed, 20 Mar 2019 13:11:23Alan Parsons will return to Israel to perform with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra following the release of a new solo album next month titled “The Secret.”

Parsons' performance in Israel is part of his 70th birthday tour and will mark his third visit to the country in recent years following shows in 2015 and 2017. The British musician is slated to perform a number of his greatest hits in Israel, including “Eye in the Sky” and “Old and Wise.”

Parsons will appear in the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv on June 4. Ticket prices will range from 255 shekels ($70) to 995 shekels.

In the 1960s, Parsons began working as a sound engineer in the Abbey Road Studios in London, where he worked on the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album. Parsons also worked as an audio engineer for Pink Floyd’s’ “Dark Side of the Moon,” which got him his first Grammy nomination.

The London native began his Alan Parsons Project in 1975 along with Scottish musician Eric Woolfson. The group’s debut album, "Tales of Mystery and Imagination," was released in 1976 and was based on poems and horror stories written by Edgar Alan Poe. The group’s second album, “I Robot,” was released in 1977 and was inspired by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov and his robot stories.

The project ended in 1990, and Eric Woolfson later died in 2009. The group’s last studio album "The Silican Defence" was released in 2014.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/hungarian-fm-embassy-in-israel-will-not-be-moved-to-jerusalem-1.7042107
1.7042107Wed, 20 Mar 2019 12:38:09Noa LandauWed, 20 Mar 2019 12:38:09Hungary's Embassy in Israel will remain in Tel Aviv and will not be moved to Jerusalem, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told the Israel Hayom daily in an interview that was published Wednesday, a day after his country dedicated a new commercial office in Jerusalem.

Hungary has not changed its overall approach regarding the location of the embassy in Tel Aviv, the foreign minister said. His country's position, he added, is to maintain international law and to conform its stance to that of the European Union, of which Hungary is a member.

Although Jerusalem is Israel's capital, the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their future capital. There is a European Union consensus opposing any move by EU member states of their embassies in Israel to Jerusalem, based on the position that the city's final status will only be determined through agreement between Israelis and Palestinians.

The EU also maintains that unilateral steps, such as U.S. President Donald Trump's decision last year to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, should be avoided.

In recent years, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has forged closer ties with the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is viewed in Europe as an extreme right-wing figure.

Orban has been curbing democratic freedoms in his country through draconian legislation, limitations on civil society activity as well as control of the media and the court system.

The Hungarian premier has been waging a high-profile campaign against Hungarian-born Jewish billionaire George Soros, who has provided financial support for human rights organizations in Hungary.

The campaign is perceived by many Hungarian Jews as anti-Semitic, but nonethless Netanyahu has been bolstering ties with Orban in an effort to undermine the consensus among EU states in support of a two-state solution to Israel's conflict with the Palestinians.

An anti-Soros billboard campaign prompted condemnation from the Israeli embassy in Budapest amid concern among Hungarian Jews that it was fomenting anti-Semtism. Netanyahu later had a clarification issued on the matter to emphasize that, while the embassy's condemnation of anti-Semitism stood, “in no way was the statement meant to delegitimize criticism of George Soros, who continuously undermines Israel’s democratically elected governments by funding organizations that defame the Jewish state and seek to deny it the right to defend itself.”

Guatemala only country to follow U.S. lead

With regard to relocation of embassies in Israel to Jerusalem, since the American embassy was moved from Tel Aviv last June, only Guatemala has followed suit. Paraguay moved its embassy but reversed the decision just months later.

Despite efforts on Netanyahu's part, the countries of the European Union have remained united on the issue. EU countries such as Hungary, Austria and Romania, which have made promises regarding moving their embassy to Israel's capital, have not followed through, toeing the line with the European position. The Czech Republic, which is also a European Union member, has opened a cultural center in Jerusalem.

Honduras has promised to move its embassy, in exchange for economic assistance and Israeli mediation regarding the Central American country's ties with the United States, but the move has not yet taken place. Brazil, whose new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has also made statements in support for moving his country's embassy, is not expected to formally announce such a move on his forthcoming visit to Israel at the end of this month.

Australia, whose evangelical Christian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has made comments in support of a move of his country's embassy, ultimately transferred only its commercial section and recognizing West Jerusalem but not the entire city as Israel's capital. The Philippines has expressed support in principle for moving its embassy to Jerusalem but has also not yet done so.

The windows of the cars were smashed, and vandals also spray-painted the Star of David symbol on some of the vehicles, along with slogans in Hebrew that read: “We do not sleep while our brothers are being slain” and “Enough with the terror attacks.”

Residents reported the vandalism to the police, which in turn launched an investigation into the incident.

>> Read more: There's a different kind of escalation brewing in the West Bank | Analysis

In January, the windows of three vehicles in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya were broken. About 15 olive trees were cut down in a grove near the village of Al-Tuwani in the southern West Bank, also in January, by unknown perpetrators. The words “revenge” and “death to Arabs” were spray-painted on rocks in the area.

The past year saw a steep rise in “nationalist crimes,” violence and property damage by Jews against Palestinians in the West Bank. As of mid-December, 482 such incidents had been reported, compared to 140 for 2017.

Violence by settlers and right-wing activists included beating up and throwing stones at Palestinians. More frequently, the offenses consisted of painting nationalist and anti-Arab or anti-Muslim slogans, damaging homes and cars and cutting down trees belonging to Palestinian farmers.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israeli-army-releases-details-of-probes-into-deaths-of-11-palestinian-protesters-1.7041811
1.7041811Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:54:08Yaniv KubovichWed, 20 Mar 2019 11:54:08Israel will launch an investigation into the deaths of 11 Palestinians who were killed by live fire while protesting along the coastal enclave's border in 2018.

Among the cases the Israel Defense Forces' military police will investigate is that of 15-year-old Mohammed Ayoub, which sparked international outcry after a video emerged that showed the Gazan teen shot in the head while participating in a demonstration.

Last week, the IDF announced that Military Advocate General Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek had instructed the Military Police to investigate the 11 cases. Former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot had also ordered that the army open probes into the deaths.

Until last week’s announcement, only three criminal investigations were opened, probing the deaths of female medic Razan al-Najjar and Strip residents ‘Abd al-Nabi and Othman Halas. These are joined by eight additional probes.

Al-Najjar was shot on June 1, 2018 while wearing a medical uniform. An investigation by the New York Times which analyzed videos, footage and testimonies of witnesses found that the medic was not posing a danger to Israeli soldiers. The investigation claimed that the shooting was a rash act, which could be considered a war crime.

Over the past year many inquiries were made into the different cases, but none of them resulted in investigators recommending that criminal probes be opened against the Israeli soldiers who fired at Palestinian protesters.

Nonetheless, an examination of the findings of General Staff probes as well as other information led the army to suspect that in a number of cases, soldiers had violated the rules of engagement.

One suspicion the Military Police is looking into is that the troops who killed Abd al-Nabi during a March 30 protest east of Jabalya are also responsible for three more deaths that took place on the same day: The lethal shooting of Mohammed Kamal al-Najjar, 26, who was killed by sniper fire in the abdomen; the killing of Thaer Abdel-Rauf Raba’a, 30, who was shot in his lower body on March 30 and died three days later after losing a large amount of blood; the death of Bader Ibrahim al-Sabbagh, 20, who was hit in the head by sniper fire on March 30.

In addition to these three cases, these are the other deaths that the Israeli military is investigating:

- The army is probing again the death of the 15-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim Ayoubwas killed on April 20.

- Ahmad Nabil Abu Aqel, 24, was shot in the back of the head on April 20.

- Ahmad Rashad Abdallah al-Athamnah, 25, was shot in the back on April 20.

- Bilal Bdeir Hussein al-Ashram, 17, was shot in the chest and right leg on May 15.

- Nasser Ahmad Mahmoud Ghorab, 51, was shot in the chest on May 15.

On February 28, the investigative commission of the United Nations Human Rights Council presented its findings on the most recent round of violence along the border and found “reasonable grounds” that Israeli security forces violated international law.

The commission determined that the majority of Gaza protesters who were killed by Israeli forces — 154 out of 183 people — had been unarmed.

The panel also recommended that UN members consider imposing individual sanctions, such as a travel ban or an assets freeze, on those identified as responsible by the commission.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-how-to-stop-america-s-swastika-problem-1.7016112
1.7016112Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:34:32Mya Guarnieri Jaradat Wed, 20 Mar 2019 11:34:32After I saw the swastika on the tree at my children's playground, I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I call the police? Tell the Homeowners’ Association? Or the management company?

One sunny afternoon a few weeks later, I was at the other park, the one without swastikas, with some friends from the neighborhood. A young couple - Mike and Nabila - they have an 18-month-old girl the same age as my son.

>> It Was a Beautiful Saturday Morning, Save for the Swastikas

As we strapped our children into their strollers and headed out of the park, I told them about the swastikas. They gasped.

"Where did you find it?" Mike asked.

"At the park over there,” I said, pointing. "The one with the big slide."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing," I admitted. "What should I do? Should I call the police?"

Mike shook his head. "Don’t bother."

I was surprised to hear this from Mike - he’s a fireman. As a civil servant himself, I expected him to tell me that I had a duty to call the police, to report the incident.

"We’re turning to authorities too often and not taking matters into our own hands enough,” he explained.

I thought about that a bit as we walked together. Iowa’s congressman Steve King immediately came to mind. The New York Times had run an article detailing his white nationalist politics and revealing his connections to far-right leaders like France’s Marine Le Pen.

After remarking in the same article, "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?" Republican leaders condemned King and removed him from the committees he served on.

It was a cynical move designed to distance the GOP from King and to broaden their appeal to minorities. But if the Republicans continue to embrace Trump, who espouses the same politics as King, the move is totally superficial and disingenuous.

And it’s not enough - populist politicians like King and Trump are pandering to their constituency. At the same time, they’re also shaping public opinion. It’s a dangerous, runaway process that has to be fought on all levels.

I could see Mike’s point then.

"So how do I get it off the tree?" I asked.

"Spray paint," he suggested.

"But I’ll still know it’s there," I said.

There were also practical concerns - my husband works long hours and I’m alone with the kids all the time. What would I do with my three-year-old and 18-month-old while I was spray-painting the swastikas on the trees? Leave them strapped in the stroller? They’d freak out. Let them wander around the unfenced park that’s between a road and a parking lot?

And when my three-year-old asks why I’m painting on a tree? What would I be modeling for her? How could I explain that some sorts of vandalism are okay and others are not?

I explained all of this to Mike. He made another suggestion. "Scrape it off."

I imagined the tree scarred. It would be better than a swastika. But I would still know what had been there.

So I continued to do nothing. A few days later, as I passed the park, I noticed that the offensive graffiti - along with some bark - was gone.

"Was that you guys?" I asked the next time I saw Nabila. We were putting our 18-month-olds in side-by-side bright blue swings.

Nabila nodded. "Mike went out the next morning alone with the scraper."

"Thank you," I said, my eyes filling with tears. I was touched.

But I still find myself avoiding that park because I know what was there. And, more so, I know that the people who did the graffiti are out there, too. So are the people who put Steve King into office and who have elected him not once, not twice, but nine times.

So are the people who voted for Trump and who are now lining his reelection coffers.

King and Trump and their ilk are merely symptoms of a deeper ill. That sickness manifests in a variety of ways that are well-documented: from the police killing African Americans to the shockingly high numbers of African American maternal deaths to the wage gap between whites and minorities.

It manifests when a white terrorist walks into a mosque and opens fire on a group of people whose religion, Islam, means peace, on a group of people worshipping God with nothing but empty hands and open hearts.

But it also takes place on a smaller scale every day and that smaller scale allows the bigger things to continue. It starts with casual racism, even "positive" stereotypes like that of the model minority.

It starts with the casual racism of a clerk at Target who, when I was buying a few things for Hannukah and balked at the price, remarked: "I thought all you Jews are rich - you guys control all the money, right?"

It starts with the neighbor who, when my children trampled his flower bed and I apologized, leaned in and whispered, conspiratorially, that it was fine that it was my kids and not any of these "nigger children" who run around the neighborhood.

It starts with the co-worker who, in the faculty workroom, confides that she can’t stand "the Haitians" - a group that makes up much of our student body.

Casual racism is a form of dehumanization - and the tragedy that took place in New Zealand is a horrific reminder of what can happen when someone stops seeing a particular group as humans but, rather, as an "other."

Removing Steve King from his committees - scraping the bark off the proverbial tree - gives the superficial impression of change. Where the work needs to happen is on the personal level, the grassroots level, on the one-to-one level, so the Kings and Trumps and Netanyahus of the world - and there are many - aren’t elected in the first place.

Mike’s right. We shouldn’t be reaching out to the authorities - especially in America and Israel where the authorities are racist and incite or commit violence themselves. You can’t turn to leaders who make Muslim bans or call Mexicans rapists or who say that "Israel is not a state of all its citizens."

Instead, we should be reaching out across walls of race, gender, and class. We must reach out to each other.

Mya Guarnieri Jaradat is a journalist, writer, and the author of The Unchosen: The Lives of Israel’s New Others. She is currently working on a memoir about her time in Bethlehem. Twitter: @myaguarnieri

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-pocket-money-loans-millions-for-legal-advice-has-netanyahu-s-wallet-been-found-1.7041526
1.7041526Wed, 20 Mar 2019 10:04:21Gur Megiddo Wed, 20 Mar 2019 10:04:23Before diving into the alleged ties among Benjamin Netanyahu, Nathan Milikowsky and the German company ThyssenKrupp in regard to the so-called submarine affair, there are important questions to be asked about the prime minister’s relations with his cousin and taxes.

Milikowsky has for decades given Netanyahu large amounts of cash, in addition to six-figure contributions to the prime minister’s legal defense fund and loans amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The two men were also in business together, co-owning a manufacturing company until Milikowsky purchased Netanyahu’s stake for 16 million shekels ($4.440 million).

>> Analysis: Netanyahu suffers legal blow, and it could be devastating

Here’s what we know about the one-way money trail between Milikowsky and Netanyahu:

Milikowsky has been supporting Netanyahu for years, giving him several thousand dollars in cash every few weeks. Netanyahu told this to investigators for the so-called Case 1000, involving allegations that he accepted unlawful gifts from wealthy businessmen. By way of explaining how he paid for some of the cigars allegedly supplied by Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, Netanyahu said he used cash that his generous cousin Nathan gave him. The prime minister told detectives it was part of a family tradition that began when Milikowsky’s father helped to support his own father. Milikowsky confirmed the story.

As reported recently, Netanyahu and Melikowsky had joint ownership of stock in SeaDrift Coke, a Texas-based manufacturer of petroleum needle coke. If Netanyahu’s version is credible, he acquired the shares in 2007, when he was the chairman of the opposition in the Knesset, and sold them to his cousin in November 2010.

Only in Netanyahu’s lexicon can someone who does business with him to the tune of 16 million shekels be characterized as a relative who provides him with cash as part of “financial support.” Anyone who can see straight would be aware that Netanyahu isn’t needy, and Milikowsky is no philanthropist. Netanyahu is a prime minister and Milikowsky is a capitalist — and they are business partners.

In 2009 Netanyahu asked, and received, permission from a committee in the State Comptroller’s Office to accept a loan from Milikowsky for a tax debt. The scope of the debt, and of the loan, are not known. Netanyahu refuses to publicly disclose these figures.

Israel Channel 13 News reported this week that when Milikowsky purchased Netanyahu’s stake in Sea Drift Coke in November 2010, $175,000 was deducted from the payment to Netanyahu. Associates of the prime minister said this was to repay the loan that was approved by the State Comptroller’s Office in 2009, and that the tax debt was owed on a dividend issued by SeaDrift to shareholders, including Netanyahu. There is cause to question this account, but there is no question that Netanyahu borrowed at least $175,000 from Milikowsky.

Before Netanyahu approached the approvals committee in the State Comptroller’s Office, Milikowsky had already given the prime minister’s lawyers $300,000 toward Netanyahu’s legal fees. Netanyahu wants to raise this amount to $1 million. There is cause to question Milikowsky’s largesse. Why would he give so much to the prime minister? How can we be sure that these funds, ostensibly for Netanyahu’s legal fees, are in fact a donation and not part of the two men’s business relationship?

The approvals committee has in effect determined that it cannot distinguish between Milikowsky the donor and Milikowsky the business partner. The committee didn’t just say this, it basically shouted it out in a decision that was like an alarm bell aimed at the police, the attorney general’s office, the government — and the tax authorities. Are the tax authorities not interested when business partners, one of which is the prime minister, explicitly admit to passing cash, defined as donations or as “allowance money,” between them for years?

The most suspicious aspect of the Netanyahu-Milikowsky relationship is the prime minister’s dissemination of false information, in a clear and blatant attempt to hide this relationship from the public. Perhaps this has to do with Netanyahu and Milikowsky’s business relationship with the ThyssenKrupp supplier GrafTech. The efforts to conceal the full nature of these relations is another fact that ought to be setting off red warning bells to the tax authorities.

When it was first published, in 2017, that Milikowsky was the owner of one of ThyssenKrupp’s suppliers, Netanyahu said he had nothing to do with the business dealings of his relative and that he had never discussed this with him. Netanyahu’s first version turned out to be untrue when the approvals committee exposed about a month ago that he had stock in Milikowsky’s firm. Netanyahu’s advocates have now supplied version No. 2, according to which he purchased the stock when he was a private citizen, that is prior to 2002.

This version also doesn’t hold up. The Marker reported on Friday that the company in which Netanyahu held stock was founded in 2005 — when he was the finance minister. Netanyahu adhered to this version for three days, until Monday. Then, in response to a video distributed by Kahol Lavan, the electoral alliance of Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, he issued a third version. In it, he said he bought the shares in 2007, when he was head of the opposition.

The frequent changes to the story of the stock ownership shows that he knows something is fishy. The contradictions are apparently not only in statements to the media but also in the various versions given to the approvals committee. When Netanyahu asked for permission to receive funds from Milikowsky, he presented him as simply a relative, a donor motivated by generosity. The committee should have investigated the history of Netanyahu’s previous requests, which had described their relationship in entirely different terms.

So who is Nathan Milikowsky to Netanyahu? A donor or a business partner? Cousin or deep pocket? These are the questions that ought to concern the tax authorities.

“Nathan Milikowsky and the prime minister never did any accounting between them, and the attempt to create the appearance as though any business accounting was done between them is false and ridiculous,” Amit Hadad, an attorney for Netanyahu, said in a response.

Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, said she and her husband are not in the habit of carrying credit cards.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/new-zealand-fm-travels-to-turkey-to-confront-erdogan-for-mosque-shooting-comments-1.7041691
1.7041691Wed, 20 Mar 2019 09:34:22Reuters וHaaretzWed, 20 Mar 2019 09:34:22New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Turkey to “confront” comments made by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the killing of at least 50 people at mosques in Christchurch.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder on Saturday after a lone gunman opened fire at the two mosques during Friday prayers.

Erdogan - who is seeking to drum up support for his Islamist-rooted AK Party in March 31 local elections - said Turkey would make the suspected attacker pay if New Zealand did not.

>> Read more: After Christchurch and Pittsburgh, U.S. Jews and Muslims need each other more than ever | Opinion ■ From satirical memes to massacring Muslims: How the dark web turns white supremacists into terrorists

The comments came at a campaign rally that included video footage of the shootings which the alleged gunman had broadcast on Facebook.

The Turkish president also published an op-ed in the Washington Post on Wednesday in which he addressed the shooting again as well as the shooter's background.

"There were many historical references on the murder weapons and in a manifesto that the suspected terrorist published online. The number of times he mentioned both Turkey and myself was both curious and worth deeper consideration," Erdogan wrote.

He noted that the shooter visited Turkey twice in 2016, where he "spent time in various parts of the country."

Erdogan called on Western countries to voice a clear stance against violence and hatred in the wake of the shooting: "It is crucial to establish that such twisted ideologies, such as anti-Semitism, amount to crimes against humanity," he added.

"If the world wants to prevent future assaults similar to the one in New Zealand," the Turkish president concluded, "it must start by establishing that what happened was the product of a coordinated smear campaign."

Ardern said Peters would seek urgent clarification.

“Our deputy prime minister will be confronting those comments in Turkey,” Ardern told reporters in Christchurch. “He is going there to set the record straight, face-to-face.”

Peters had earlier condemned the airing of footage of the shooting, which he said could endanger New Zealander’s aboard.

Despite Peters’ intervention, an extract from Tarrant’s alleged manifesto was flashed up on a screen at Erdogan’s rally again on Tuesday, along with footage of the gunman entering one of the mosques and shooting as he approached the door.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he summoned Turkey’s ambassador for a meeting, during which he demanded Erdogan’s comments be removed from Turkey’s state broadcaster.

“I will wait to see what the response is from the Turkish government before taking further action, but I can tell you that all options are on the table,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

Morrison said Australia’s ambassador to Turkey will on Wednesday meet with the members of Erdogan’s government.

Morrison said Canberra is also reconsidering its travel advice for Australians planning trips to Turkey.

Relations between Turkey, New Zealand and Australia have generally been good. Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders travel each year to Turkey for war memorial services

Just over a century ago, thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) struggled ashore on a narrow beach at Gallipoli during an ill-fated campaign that would claim more than 130,000 lives.

The area has become a site of pilgrimage for visitors who honor their nations’ fallen in graveyards halfway around the world on ANZAC Day every April 25.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/.premium-in-the-war-for-workers-israeli-tech-firms-use-blowout-parties-to-boost-their-image-1.7041605
1.7041605Wed, 20 Mar 2019 08:02:49Irad Atzmon Schmayer Wed, 20 Mar 2019 08:02:49It’s Purim, and Israel’s high-tech companies are readying to party hardy. AppsFlyer, an Israeli-U.S. marketing analytics startup, for example, is planning a 1990s-themed event with the former Eurovision Song Contest winner Dana International as the top bill. That event is regarded as modest in the world of tech parties, where Purim is only the peak of the season, but where marquee events occur throughout the year.

In January, Microsoft Israel invited its 4,500 employees to the Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds for an event themed around the rock band Queen. The lineup included Israeli singers Aviv Geffen, Ninet Tayeb, Shiri Maimon and Ivri Lider among others. Media reports said each of the performers was paid tens of thousands of shekels to perform one or two sings each.

To really understand Israel and the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz

NSO, the cyberhacking-technology company, flew employees to Thailand last November. The event, in keeping with NSO’s determined low profile, was supposed to be a secret but surfaced on social media as employees boasted to their friends that singer Netta Barzilai (last year’s Eurovision winner), the comedy troupe Shlishiyat Ma Kashur and mentalist Lior Suchard had been flown in for the event.

Last summer, IronSource, which provides monetization tools for app developers, staged an ersatz “Burning Man” event in the Israeli desert for 800 employees from Israel and overseas. Dubbed Ironburn, the events cost the company a reported 5 million shekels ($1.4 million).

To outsiders, it all may seem like a frivolous waste of money, but for the companies, it’s an important recruitment tool as they compete for the best engineering and other talent in a tight labor market. Employees are no longer content with generous salaries and stock options, not to mention game rooms and office amenities. They want to know they work for a company that has a high profile, acts brashly and thinks big.

It seems crazy, but the truth is that there’s a huge fight for manpower,” said a venture capitalist who asked not to be named. “Personally, as a manager, I don’t like it and don’t believe in all this nonsense, but in the end, it’s a matter of personal taste and reputation.”

Corporate events can also help restore the cohesiveness the startups lose as they grow into bigger companies and hire more employees and set up offices around the world. At some stage, not all the staff knows one another, said Ilan Stern, vice president for human resources at Guardicore, a cybersecurity company.

“As a growing startup looking for talent, it’s important for us to preserve the culture of a small startup,” he said. “Even though we have 140 employees, we’ve thought about how to keep the spirit of the old Guardicore. We avoid having events that come at the company’s initiative.”

To do that, it sponsors evening get-togethers, such as Thursday happy hours. The HR department pays for them, but it expects to employees themselves to organize the evening, to order food and plan the program. Stern says it also hosts costlier events, too, to encourage employee cohesiveness. “We fly all our employees into Israel for a week’s holiday, which includes meetings and training. We had an event with all the company employees from around the world and at the party, a company band performed. I played the bass guitar,” he said.

Kinneret Rosenbloom, an organizational consultant for tech and non-tech companies, said she is not convinced of their utility. “At many companies, the opulence turns into over-the-top competition – a show of power that you tell your friends about or see in the newspapers. Sure you’re pampering employees and instilling pride when you tell your friends you were flown to Greece – when their company’s day off was a tour of Caesarea.”

But she warned: “It’s also a minefield. When investing so much in music and alcohol and raising spirits, it can be great for many of the participants. But not everyone.”

By that Rosenbloom means that trips abroad and long hours together often lead to misbehavior. “The blurring of boundaries can also be expressed in sexual harassment,” Ifat Belfer, the director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers’ department dealing with workplace sexual harassment, told TheMarker in a recent interview.

Kaltura, a U.S.-Israeli video technology startup, takes a lower-key, more business-like approach to fostering employee cohesiveness. It sponsors an annual “Innovation Week” where staff are free to develop their own personal projects.

“Because at the end of ‘Innovation Week’ employees are required to get on stage and present their project, we flew in [actor Darko Peric] from Helsinki from the Spanish crime series “La casa de papel,” who gave them a talk about how to speak to an audience,” Sigal Srur, Kultura’s senior vice president for human resources, said.

She admits that inviting a celebrity had little to do with the program, but added: “You can’t throw the baby out with the bath water. We follow industry trends and believe that you need to invest heavily in staff. It contributes to our brand …. Instead of competing with big, high-cost productions, we believe in spending money, but not ridiculously, and with the goal of adding value.”

Srur doesn’t think the companies sponsoring over-the-top events are necessary getting their money’s worth. “Each high-tech Purim party wants to stand out, but all the singers are going from one event to the next, so in the end everyone is doing the same thing,” she said.

According to the Israeli army, the two men threw the devices out of a vehicle they drove. In response, soldiers opened fire and hit the Palestinans' car. There were no Israeli casualties in the incident.

The two Palestinians have been identified as Ra'id Hamdan, 21, and Ziyad Nuri, 20.

Palestinians have declared a mourning strike in the Nablus area following the event, also citing the death of Omar Amin Abu Lila in a shootout with Israeli forces. Abu Lila is the suspected assailant in Sunday's shooting and stabbing attack that killed soldier Gal Keidan, 19, and Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger, 47.

The Israel Defense Forces released a statement in response to the incident: "A number of explosives were hurled from a vehicle at Israeli army forces that were securing the entrance of worshipers at Joseph's Tomb in Nablus."

"Israeli army forces responded with live fire toward the vehicle. At the same time, military engineering tools struck the vehicle. As a result, two attackers were killed," the IDF said.

Palestinian reports said the exchange came in the wake of clashes that were ignited when Jewish worshipers entered the holy site to pray. The reports said the confrontations then spilled over into the city's eastern neighborhoods.

This is not the first time Joseph's Tomb is at the center of violent clashes. The holy site is under the control of the Palestinian Authority, and Jewish worshipers require the PA's approval to enter the compound. Once inside, they are normally accompanied by Israeli soldiers as a security measure.

In the past, unauthorized Jewish visitors were arrested by Palestinian police and extricated by Israeli soldiers. In 2015, Palestinians set fire to the holy site.

In 2011, Palestinian security forces opened fire on three cars full of Israelis who entered the compound illegally, killing 25-year-old Ben-Joseph Livnat.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/reopen-the-investigation-into-the-submarine-affair-1.7041603
1.7041603Wed, 20 Mar 2019 05:35:05Haaretz EditorialWed, 20 Mar 2019 05:35:05In November 2016, just about two weeks after the case regarding Israel’s purchase of German submarines was made public, an unusual announcement was issued by the office of the attorney general. Avichai Mendelblit declared that he had not found any suspicion of criminal wrongdoing in the case. He was proven wrong. The submarine affair could be one of the worst cases of corruption in the country’s history. It centers around two transactions involving Israel and the German firm ThyssenKrupp for the purchase by Israel for about 2 million euros ($2.3 million) of submarines and missile boats. Strategic and sensitive security decisions relating to the country’s very existence were compromised.

In addition, when the criminal investigation into the matter, dubbed Case 3000, was opened in February 2017, the Justice Ministry was at pains to make it immediately clear that “the prime minister is not among the suspects in the affair,” even prior to the questioning of a number of Benjamin Netanyahu’s associates, including David Shimron, David Sharan, Eliezer Zandberg, Isaac Molho and Avriel Bar-Yosef. Although at the moment it is not known how the news of a change in the testimony of state’s witness Michael Ganor will affect the case, other than with respect to Molho, there was sufficient evidence to have them face criminal charges.

In March 2017, it was reported that Netanyahu’s cousin Nathan Milikowsky had a business relationship with ThyssenKrupp. Following the report, Netanyahu said he had not been aware of Milikowsky’s business dealings. Recently the permits committee at the state comptroller’s office revealed that Netanyahu had not told the truth.

The prime minister and Milikowsky had not only talked about business. They had been partners in a steel plant that was sold to GrafTech International, a supplier of ThyssenKrupp. Netanyahu had bought the shares when he was Knesset opposition leader. It turns out that Netanyahu sold his shares at a handsome profit of 16 million shekels ($4.4 million) in November 2010, as part of a merger of the plant into the company’s business, while he was prime minister.

The newly revealed facts suggest a purported business connection between the prime minister and ThyssenKrupp, at least while deliberations were under way on the purchase of the sixth submarine from ThyssenKrupp, and possibly as late as the end of 2015 – the peak period of events relating to the submarine case. That’s because Milikowsky continued to hold shares in the company until August of that year.

In addition, on Monday it was reported that Amos Gilad, the former head of the Defense Ministry’s diplomatic-security division, testified to the police that Netanyahu was the one who gave Germany approval to sell advanced submarines to Egypt, contrary to the prime minister’s past claims that Germany never sought his approval.

The change in state’s witness Ganor’s testimony is expected to result in the reopening of Case 3000. The reopening of the case also requires an investigation of Netanyahu and the new reports concerning the stock transactions. This dark cloud must not be allowed to hover over this serious case in which the security interests of Israeli citizens were compromised for financial greed.

The above article is Haaretz’s lead editorial, as published in the Hebrew and English newspapers in Israel.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-arab-ultra-orthodox-schools-have-fewer-teachers-per-student-1.7041601
1.7041601Wed, 20 Mar 2019 04:53:38Shira Kadari-Ovadia Wed, 20 Mar 2019 04:53:38There are significant disparities in the student-teacher ratio among the country’s various public educational streams, data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday show. While the average number of students per teacher in state religious schools is just 8.9, and the state secular system employs on average one teacher per 10.9 students. The ratio is 11.3 students per teacher in Arab schools on average and 12.9 students per teacher in ultra-Orthodox, Haredi schools, as they are known in Hebrew.

The figures relate to all teaching staff at the country’s schools, including not only regular classroom teachers but also administrators and counseling staff. The disparities are particularly pronounced at the high school level. The student-teacher ratio is 5.2:1 in state religious schools, 7.6:1 in state secular schools and 10.4:1 in high schools in the Arab school system. Among ultra-Orthodox high schools, most of which are not government-run, and therefore don’t receive full funding from the government, the average ratio is 14.1 students per student.

The gap among the various streams is also reflected in the average number of teaching hours, ranging from 76.1 per week in the state religious system to 75.6 in the state secular system, 70.8 in the Arab system and 46.6 in ultra-Orthodox schools. The tally of hours not only includes regular classroom instructional time but other functions, among them one-one-one time between teachers and students.

The disparity in hours is part of a larger problem involving differing levels of funding for education. The average amount spent in 2017 per student at Arab elementary schools in communities with the poorest socioeconomic conditions was 18,000 shekels ($5,000). By contrast, the investment per Jewish pupil at a school in areas with an equivalent socioeconomic level was a little over 21,000 shekels. And on average, funding per Jewish high school student was about 30 percent higher than per Arab high school student: 29,491 shekels versus 22,642 shekels. In an effort to narrow the gaps, two months ago, the Education Ministry began implementing a differential funding model for Arab high schools, providing additional funding for high schools in communities of low socioeconomic standing.

The data show that the percentage of teachers in Hebrew-language schools who lack an academic degree has dropped from 19.3 percent a decade ago to 7.2 percent in the current school year. In Arab schools, the situation is better, with just 3.3 percent of teachers currently lacking an academic degree. In addition, 36 percent of teachers in Hebrew education have a master’s degree or higher, a 10 percent rise compared to the 2009-2010 school year. In Arab schools, 31.6 percent of teachers have a master’s degree or higher, compared to 13 percent a decade ago.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-comptroller-mulled-changing-panel-examining-pm-s-request-for-legal-funding-1.7041599
1.7041599Wed, 20 Mar 2019 04:21:30Gidi WeitzWed, 20 Mar 2019 04:21:30State Comptroller Joseph Shapira seriously considered replacing members on the committee in his office that was dealing with a request from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for approval to accept funds for legal fees from wealthy businessmen, according to sources.

The possible change in the composition of the panel came as the panel was in the process of rejecting the request, which, if approved, would allow the prime minister to collect outside funding for legal fees in three criminal investigations against him

Sources have told Haaretz that Shapira had apparently sought the dismissal of attorney Nurit Yisraeli from the panel. Yisraeli had once been a legal adviser to the comptroller’s office.

Yisraeli, who along with committee chairman Awni Habash was considered one of the more aggressive opponents of the prime minister’s request, had recently considered resigning from the panel and refused to respond to requests for comment from Haaretz.

Shapira later backed away from the idea over concerns that it would damage his reputation.

In recent weeks, Shapira expected that Netanyahu would appeal to the Supreme Court over the committee’s rejection of the funding for his legal expenses in the criminal investigations. As a result, it was Shapira’s expectation that the committee would rehear the matter. Consideration of the prime minister’s request generated tension between Shapira and some committee members,who felt he was not being supportive as a result of pressure that was being exerted on him.

A knowledgeable source said Shapira didn’t like the committee’s aggressive position and that his desire to change the composition of the panel was the product of a desire “to be liked again by groups whose opinions he regards as important.”

The committee has six members. When a request is filed, the comptroller chooses three of them to consider it. Two weeks ago Habash, who is a retired judge, announced that he would be stepping down from the committee due to political pressure. Shapira must now replace him. Although another retired judge, Ezra Kama, had chaired the panel in the past, Shapira is not expected to reappoint him to replace Habash and is instead expected to look for another senior judicial figure.

Shapira, who was himself appointed state comptroller with Netanyahu’s support and with assistance from confidants of the prime minister’s (including Netanyahu’s lawyer, David Shimron, and Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman), was seen in his initial years as someone whom the government could easily live with. Later his attitude toward Netanyahu changed, as reflected in a scathing report he issued about the Communications Ministry and the major telecommunications firm Bezeq, this at a time when Prime Minister Netanyahu was also communications minister.

But in January, Shapira did grant an exceptional request from Netanyahu’s lawyer Navot Tel-Zur to have the committee reconvene to consider his arguments even after they had already rejected the Netanyahu’s request for permission to fund his legal expenses. The panel denied the request and after Netanyahu appealed to the Supreme Court, they accepted a compromise offer to permit Netanyahu to provide additional responses and data.

In response for this article, the Comptroller’s Office said Shapira never sought to dismiss members of the permits committee. He and the other members of the panel conduct a constructive dialogue “in a professional setting of mutual respect” that demands avoiding any conflicts of interest among its members and any cabinet ministers or their deputies. The office also said that the panel renders its decisions independently and that the comptroller “lacks the authority to alter” these decisions.

The Comptroller’s Office added that any differences of opinion between the comptroller and the panel were about one issue, and that was whether to permit Netanyahu’s lawyer to appear before the panel in addition to providing a more detailed request.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-it-s-good-to-die-for-the-west-bank-1.7041428
1.7041428Wed, 20 Mar 2019 03:11:23Zvi Bar'elWed, 20 Mar 2019 03:11:23The most recent victims in the war being waged in the West Bank between the Palestinians and the Jews are Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger, a father of 12 from the settlement of Eli, and Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan, 19 – a symbolic combination of victims that in the Israeli reality seems entirely natural. One was a settler and the other was forced to protect him.

Soldiers serving in a war zone are a “routine matter.” They are wounded and killed, and they kill. The presence of Jewish civilians, including tens of thousands of children, in such a highly charged setting is not only incomprehensible. It’s unforgivable. Israeli civilians were not allowed to enter the killing fields in Lebanon during wartime. They were removed from Gaza after a long period of terror attacks, and for about the past 12 years, they have been barred from entering the Strip.

The bluff that they and the government have been selling the public is that there is no war in the West Bank, that everything is calm there, that we can continue to build there, start families and redeem the Land of Israel without paying any price in blood. At the same time, the Israeli army and Shin Bet security service are continually briefing the government and military reporters about expectations of an escalation, of an uprising in the offing. And some say that the escalation is already here, as if during times when there is no escalation, the situation is normal, safe and stable.

The very term escalation attests to the fact that just the opposite is the case. In this violent conflict that has been ongoing for the past 52 years, there are ups and downs that are measured primarily by the number of terrorist attacks and the number of casualties, but the tension has never dropped to zero.

It’s true that the numbers are skewed in the Jews’ favor. In 2018, 14 Israelis were killed, including six soldiers and eight civilians, compared to 290 Palestinians (254 in Gaza, 34 in the West Bank and two in Israel, according to a report by B’Tselem). That’s a ratio of about 20 Palestinians per Israeli.

There are those that would argue that such a ratio of fatalities is more that tolerable, that it even represents a major achievement. The number of deaths during the five years of the second intifada, which broke out in 2000, was far worse – a ratio of roughly three to five Palestinians per Israeli (depending on the sources that reported the number of Palestinian deaths). One could also claim that, compared to other occupied areas, for example in Algeria or other African countries, Israel is facing a deluxe occupation.

The illusion of paradise is so deeply rooted that the firing of two rockets from Gaza or the killing of a soldier and a civilian in the West Bank become a national scandal and an unforgivable insult requiring immediate adoption of the harshest possible measures against the Palestinians. Most recently in vogue is the demand for the targeted killing of Hamas leaders. Already forgotten are the wholesale assassinations, some targeted and many not so much so, that didn’t prevent a thing.

And then there is the widespread false claim that the judicial system is preventing the Israel army from achieving victory, as Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, a self-proclaimed anti-terror expert, has explained. She didn’t explain why that same judicial system and that same army have permitted half a million Jewish targets, in the form of settlers, to continue to live in this firing zone, or why that same government continues to encourage civilians to put their lives and those of their children in danger there.

This is a government that is misleading its citizens into thinking that there is no war in the territories, and there isn’t even an occupation there. It embraces these misguided and misleading people, pats their heads and consoles them that with every victim, Israel is becoming stronger.

It awards their work with medals and puts a price tag on every victim, in the form of “an appropriate Zionist response,” as if the State of Israel were still being established and as if Zionism were struggling to prove its existence. A good Zionist, according to the government, is not killed in defense of the homeland that has already been established. He owes his life to the expansion plan for that same homeland.

If he is destined to die, better that it be done in the West Bank, where he can give his body to a contractors’ form of Zionism, which will build another house and another neighborhood in his name.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-four-construction-workers-killed-in-workplace-accidents-this-week-1.7041565
1.7041565Wed, 20 Mar 2019 02:53:09Lee Yaron וNoa ShpigelWed, 20 Mar 2019 02:53:09A 34-year-old construction worker fell to his death on Tuesday at a construction site in Harish. The man, an unidentified Moldovan national, was the third worker this week to die at a building site in the northern Israeli town.

Magen David Adom paramedics called to the scene tried but failed to resuscitate the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene. MDA paramedic Itay Tillinger said his team found the man lying unconscious on the ground next to the six-story building.

The man was the fourth person to die in a workplace accident in Israel this week and the 10th in 2019. Police opened an investigation into the incident, and a representative from the Labor, Social Affairs and Social Services Ministry was called to the site. The ministry said the Stern construction company, which has yet to comment on the death, is managing the building project.

Yitzhak Stern, the contractor, currently manages 22 active construction sites. Five accidents have taken place at the company's sites, and 17 safety orders have been filed against him, some of which are on the basis of work from dangerous heights, life-threatening electrical defects and defective scaffolding.

Labor Minister Haim Katz ordered the safety director on Tuesday to close several construction sites in the town indefinitely. The ministry sent safety inspectors to a number of construction sites in town, among them the site in which Tuesday’s accident occurred.

Katz's order is misleading; the law states that a safety order closing a site remains in effect until the noted defects are fixed, and an inspector needs to revisit the site within two working days of the contractor reporting the corrections. In practice, the site may reopen in a matter of days.

In the absence of heavy sanctions, the same companies and even construction sites repeatedly receive safety orders, rendering them meaningless. The Coalition against Construction Site Accidents has been calling on the Labor Ministry to amend the law and give inspectors the authority to close down construction sites with dire or repeated safety violations for extended periods of time.

Katz blames the contractors for the accidents, and did not mention his ministry's responsibility in preventing them. "After all the effort we've invested in creating the missing detterence factor over the years in the construction industry, I expected that 2019 would show a decisive change in the trend," he said. "We will continue to take stronger steps against the contractors where it hurts them most — in their pockets — until they internalize the importance of closely following safety regulations and take responsibility for the workers’ wellbeing.”

Three other workers were killed and two others wounded in work accidents earlier this week across Israel. Fahed Yousuf Ghneimat, 38, was fatally injured at a factory in the Netivot industrial zone and died soon thereafter. That afternoon, two construction workers, Damen Joul Tatour and Amin Nasser Bsoul, died in Harish after falling from a seven-story building.

On Friday, a 19-year-old air-conditioner technician fell to his death from the third floor of an office building in Tel Aviv.

Hadas Tagari, director of the Coalition against Construction Site Accidents, said Tuesday: “After it became clear that implementing regulations authorizing safety inspectors to levy fines for safety violations resoundingly failed, it is once again clear that there is an urgency in levying sanctions that will deter safety violations.”

The founder of the Forum for Prevention of Accidents in the Workplace, Reuven Ben Shimon, commented: “The anarchy in construction sites continues, and the Labor Ministry under Haim Katz has failed to protect the most invisible and weakest workers in Israeli society. The subject of construction site safety is not on the agenda, and barely any party talks about the lives of workers, who are left to die in silence.”

Gadeer Nicola, an attorney for Kav LaOved, the Worker’s Hotline, said: “Closing construction sites that endanger workers is the most elementary matter expected of a responsible authority. They should not have waited for three people to be killed in construction sites for the safety manager to start enforcement there, and it is insufficient to rely on stop-work orders, which expire when the defects are repaired. A contractor whose construction site in practice risks the lives of its workers should be shut down for at least 30 consecutive days. Only a hit to the pockets of the contractors can stop the slaughter in construction sites."

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-tunnel-under-old-city-walls-would-dismantle-early-islamic-building-1.7041577
1.7041577Wed, 20 Mar 2019 01:42:04Nir HassonWed, 20 Mar 2019 01:42:04The Ir David Foundation and the Israel Antiquities Authority are digging a passageway under the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, from the City of David to the archaeological park adjacent to the Western Wall. The project requires dismantling part of a wall of a building from the city’s early Islamic period.

In the area of the City of David National Park, south of the Old City, which is administered by Elad, several tunnels are being excavated that will be connected to a large tourism project called the Pilgrims’ Ascent. The central tunnel, known as the stepped street, is dated to the late Second Temple period. It begins at the Pool of Siloam in the center of the village of Silwan and ends in the Givati parking lot, near the Dung Gate, where a new City of David visitors’ center is planned.

>> Read more: Pilgrims came from afar to worship at Moses' last stand ■ Jews move into controversial Muslim Quarter house in Jerusalem's old city

Two other tunnels emerge from the parking lot: The first has been dug up to the area of the Western Wall, allowing passage into the Old City. Very narrow, only small groups can navigate it, and slowly. The second, which follows a Byzantine-era street, will be suitable for larger groups and will also lead to the archaeological park.

The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Ir David Foundation, a right-wing organization also known as Elad, reached a large building under the Old City walls from the seventh century. Built on the Byzantine street, it blocked it: Only the creation of a large opening in it would allow big groups to pass through.

Human rights lawyer Eitay Mack wrote a letter on behalf of the archaeologists’ organization Emek Shaveh, attacking the IAA. He said that preserving the Umayyad building on the route of the Byzantine street is of archaeological and historical importance, and that the remains of the Umayyad palaces are of great importance and attest to the centrality of Jerusalem in the seventh century and have no parallel in Israel.

The excavation of the subterranean streets in Silwan has aroused penetrating criticism in the past, including by senior IAA officials Dr. Jonathan Seligman and Dr. Gideon Avni, who object to digging the tunnels. They claimed that the excavation violates the rules of modern archaeology, for the needs of tourism rather than for scientific reasons.

The IAA response: “The Israel Antiquities Authority is a scientific, professional entity that carries out archaeological excavations and acts to present Jerusalem’s rich past, including the many periods the city saw.

During excavations that were held throughout the years in Jerusalem’s Archaeological Park, the authority exposed along with Israeli archaeologists a series of large structures dating back to the period the Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 AD). These buildings, which were the subject of many researches and are prominently featured, make up a siginficant part of the visiting experience there.

In the 15th century, when Jerusalem was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, the city’s walls were built atop the ruins of these buildings; thus the southern part of the Old City was disconnected from its northern part.

Against this backdrop and due to the wish to give the millions of tourists who visit Jerusalem from all over the world a better travelling experience, roads and paths were developed over the past decades. In addition, several openings have been made to the Old City’s walls and in the foundations of the Umayyad buildings.

The hole in question is a narrow opening that was made in the foundations of one of these buildings after meticulous archaeological examination and documenation were carried out.

This opening enables tourists to move between the two parts of ancient Jerusalem on either side of the Old City walls. This project is part of the ‘Shalem program’ [i.e. whole in Hebrew]: A government-funded plan to unveil, preserve, research and develop the sites of ancient Jerusalem.

The Antiquities Authority is proud of is big contribution to the development of touristic sites around Jerusalem while acknowledging the importance of the archaeological and cultural values of the area.”

Elad’s response: “The archaeological excavations are being conducted by the IAA. All the decisions are made by the authorized parties based on professional scientific considerations. The organization will continue to develop ancient Jerusalem and to display the city’s rich past for the benefit of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to the national park from all over the world.”

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-humiliation-that-affects-everyone-1.7041563
1.7041563Tue, 19 Mar 2019 23:57:26Michal FruchtmanTue, 19 Mar 2019 23:57:26The arrest of a child or a teenager is particularly injurious and traumatic in the case of Palestinians in the territories. It often takes place in the dead of night; and the boy is cut off from all that is familiar and safe: from his family, from his surroundings and from his language. He is alone, surrounded by hostile, armed soldiers, most of whom do not understand his language and use it only in order to swear at him and his female relatives, as Netta Ahituv recently reported (Haaretz, March 15).

A teenager is blindfolded and restrained with painful plastic zip-tie cuffs, and is often subjected to humiliation, threats, verbal and physical violence and hours of uncertainty. He feels physical and emotional pain, fear, shame, guilt and almost total helplessness.

>> Read: 'Endless trip to hell': Israel jails hundreds of Palestinian boys a year. These are their testimonies

Traumatic events accompanied by isolation, extreme fear, helplessness, loss of control and the risk of death can severely impair adaptive capabilities and the fundamental sense of security. The impact of traumatic events on children can be especially grave, because they are still developing and lack emotional and cognitive coping skills.

Israeli and international law provide special protection for minors, recognizing that detention and interrogation at this sensitive stage of personality and identity formation may harm their growth.

Adolescence is a particularly sensitive stage in development. During this period of life, the youth is preoccupied with issues of competence, self-worth, belonging and gender as he seeks his own identity, mainly through encounters with his peer group and others outside the family. But when an interpersonal encounter becomes inhuman, without empathy and reciprocity, the emotional impact can be devastating.

We’re talking about strip searches, and withholding food, sleep and bathroom privileges, the last of which sometimes results in loss of control of bodily functions.

This is physical violence against handcuffed youths by an adult who is impervious to their suffering, and sometimes even enjoys it. These are humiliations that crush one’s dignity, and this is multiplied by the fact that the youth is one against a group of soldiers or interrogators. Such degradation may become permanently rooted in memories that will haunt the children long after they’re released.

One 12-year-old boy described soldiers laughing when he cried in fear as he sat on the floor, bound and blindfolded, and sensed the approach of dogs. Alone against the cruelty, the boys are forced to put on a show of “maturity and masculinity” and to conceal their sensitive, vulnerable and sides.

Intensifying the harm to the youngsters is the disruption of the entire family dynamic during and after the arrest. The arrest process undermines several basic parental roles: The parents are unable to prevent the entry of a hostile army into the family’s private space, and in front of their other frightened children, the parents are forced to obey the soldiers, hand over their son and order him to go with them. Those moments shatter the image of the parent as a source of protection and security. The parent is mocked, humiliated and stripped of his authority, and may lose his place as a role model. The resulting fissure may deepen and leave the parent, in the eyes of his family and in his own eyes, unable to further influence the course of his children’s lives.

Family support and guidance are essential not only to the ability of young people to cope with crisis situations, but also to help them recover and heal. But these Palestinian boys are denied parental support in these instances, since most parents are not allowed to accompany them when they’re arrested or even to visit them in detention. And if that isn’t enough, after their release, the boys return to a home that no longer feels as safe as it used to be. Under the reality of military occupation, the entire family is burdened by the knowledge that the parents cannot prevent such events from recurring.

Thus, the ability of the parents to help their son process what he went through while in detention is impaired. The inability of the family and the home to facilitate healing increases the impact of the injury. The traumatic events cast doubt on basic human relations, and may lead to the collapse of the youth’s self-esteem and the ability to trust anyone. They may also lead to anger, self-alienation and insensitivity toward others. Many boys report severe symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that may include insomnia, nightmares, bed-wetting, flashbacks, hyperactivity, anxiety and difficulty concentrating. Many of them fail to return to school; they drop out of educational and social frameworks and adopt an unhealthy lifestyle.

The arrests leave significant scars on the community as well, and their impact accumulates and intensifies as more youths are arrested.

The community fabric is also undermined by the custom of the Israeli security forces to pressure the youths under interrogation to implicate others — neighbors, friends and relatives. As a result of these mutual incriminations, when the youths are released they return to a community where trust has been undermined.

Children who have been born into a routine of insecurity and constant friction with a hostile military and who don’t know any other reality are likely to learn that the world is a cruel and intimidating place, because they have no other perspective to soften their image of the world and enable hope to take root.

Michal Fruchtman is an educational psychologist, a family therapist and a member of PsychoActive – Mental Health Professionals for Human Rights as well as the activists' group Parents Against Child Detention.

Omar Amin Abu Lila, 19, was killed during a shootout in the West Bank village of Abwein after Israeli special units surrounded the house he was hiding in. No Israeli forces were hurt in the operation.

Abu Lila, a resident of the village of Al-Zawiya, is suspected of killing Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger, a 47-year-old father of 12 children, and Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan, 19, in the settlement of Ariel on Sunday. A second soldier was in serious condition after sustaining wounds to his stomach. The two victims were laid to rest on Monday.

>> Analysis: Israel facing the perfect storm after West Bank attack

Residents of Al-Zawiya told Haaretz that as far as they knew, Abu Lila was not politically active and did not belong to a terror organization.

Early on Monday morning, the Israeli army and Shin Bet security service arrested relatives of Abu Lila and mapped the family's house in preparation of a possible demolition. Dozens of young Palestinians clashed with security forces in the wake of the arrests, with local reports saying two were wounded by rubber bullets.

According to the military, Abu Lila approached the Ariel commercial center at around 10:00 A.M on Sunday, stabbed a man, grabbed his weapon, and began firing at nearby vehicles. He then entered a vehicle whose driver had fled, fired at a hitchhiking station, and escaped.

In his eulogy of Ettinger, Education Minister Naftali Bennett said the rabbi managed to shoot the assailant before the latter got away. "Even in his death, when the murderer stood in front of him ... he shot the murderer and paid with his life," Bennett said.

Following the attack, the military blocked the entrances to the Palestinian villages of Salfit, Haris, Deir Istiya, as well as the entrance to the village of Kifl Haris. Security forces searched the adjacent villages and the military instructed nearby settlements to shut their gates until the attacker is found.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the scene of the attack later that day, saying "we know the terrorist's identity. The IDF, Shin Bet and security forces are in close pursuit after him. We also know where he lives, [and] we located his family. I gave instructions this morning to begin demolishing his home and preparations have already begun."

"These terrorists will not uproot us from here – the exact opposite will occur," the prime minister continued. "Tomorrow, as the mayor of Ariel told me, we are beginning construction of some 840 housing units in a new neighborhood, a neighborhood that I approved two years ago."

Tenders for the planned construction were issued months ago, and the final tender was approved recently. The plan was finalized long before Sunday's attack.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-state-s-witness-retracts-testimony-in-israel-s-submarine-affair-1.7041464
1.7041464Tue, 19 Mar 2019 21:37:26Josh Breiner Tue, 19 Mar 2019 21:37:26Michael Ganor, who on Tuesday recanted testimony that he had given after turning state’s evidence in the investigation of suspected corruption in Israel’s purchase of submarines and naval boats from Germany, was questioned again on Wednesday, and police sources say he failed to offer a clear explanation for his reversal.

After Ganor claimed he had never bribed anyone involved in the case, investigators confronted him with statements in previous interrogations, as well as recordings and other evidence he had previously given to police. No other people involved in the case have been questioned.

>> Israel’s submarine affair: A tale that goes from Netanyahu to gas fields to Iran

Ganor has told confidantes that he had agreed to become a state's witness because of police pressure. "I agreed to sign a state's witness agreement only because the police threatened to arrest my wife and daughters – I couldn't take the pressure," he said. "The police set the narrative in the case. Every time before confrontations with chief suspects, investigators took him to a room that was not recorded by cameras and instructed me exactly what to say and how to act. This is the truth – I don't want to lie and say that this was bribery."

Also Wednesday, Ganor had his remand extended for an additional five days.

Ganor was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of bribery and obstructing an investigation with false information after asking to withdraw his earlier account of events.

On Wednesday, one of Ganor’s lawyers, Boaz Ben-Zur, said that despite the latest developments, the prosecution had not told Ganor that the state’s evidence agreement had been terminated. The police and prosecutors have been in consultations over possibly doing so, however.

Ganor is a former senior Israeli navy official who was German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp’s representative in Israel. The case in which he has been implicated, dubbed Case 3000, involves alleged corruption over Israel’s purchase of submarines and missile boats for the Israel Navy. In recent months, he has expressed dissatisfaction over the state’s evidence agreement in his case, calling it draconian and divorced from reality.

At Wednesday’s hearing in Rishon Letzion Magistrate’s Court, another lawyer representing Ganor, Meir Erenfeld, said: “Ganor stands behind all of the facts that he provided, but he has reservations regarding the interpretation of those same facts." Under questioning on Tuesday, Ganor told police he was not interested in improving upon the terms of the state’s evidence agreement.

When police learned of the latest developments, they took Ganor into custody and questioned him under caution, meaning as a suspect rather than a witness. He told police that he had retracted his earlier testimony because he wished to recount events as they actually occurred.

Police sources expressed the belief that Ganor was in fact seeking to improve the initial terms of his state’s evidence agreement, which was signed in 2017. It provides that in return for his testimony, he would serve a year in prison and pay a 10 million shekel ($2.8 million) fine.

“I didn’t bribe anyone,” Ganor told police investigators this week. “All of the payments that I made to those involved in the case were for professional services that they provided to me.” Ganor did not deny paying the individuals hundreds of thousands of shekels, however.

In November, the police announced that it found sufficient evidence to charge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lawyer, David Shimron, with facilitating bribery in the affair. Shimron, who is also Netanyahu’s cousin, began representing Ganor in 2009. Police say Ganor used the family connection to Netanyahu to advance ThyssenKrupp’s interests in what became a deal worth nearly $2 billion for the company.

Police also recommended charging Netanyahu’s former bureau chief, David Sharan, former navy chief Eliezer Marom and two other ex-navy commanders on similar bribery counts in the case. Ganor served in the navy with Brig. Gen. (res.) Avriel Bar-Yosef, who police also recommended to charge.

In the aftermath of Ganor’s request to withdraw his testimony, senior police officials have stressed that they have firm evidence against all those involved, including other testimony supporting Ganor’s initial account. His retraction doesn’t change where the case stands, they said. Furthermore, prosecution sources said its agreement with Ganor specifies that the state would be able to use his testimony and other material provided by him even if he recants it.

The latest development could make it more difficult for prosecutors to prove their case against the other suspects, however, because Ganor’s earlier statements that the funds that he had transferred were bribes are considered central to the case.

Earlier this month, Channel 13 News reported that Netanyahu had been a business partner of another cousin, Nathan Milikowsky until 2010, and that they had owned shares in a company, GrafTech International, that was a supplier to Thyssenkrupp, the German shipbuilder at the center of Case 3000.

Sources from the police and in the prosecutor’s office as well as sources close to Ganor himself have said his desire to withdraw his testimony was not in any way related to Channel 13’s disclosures.

In his first televised interview, the former army chief predicted his party would emerge from the election victorious, saying Kahol Lavan would get 40 out of 120 Knesset seats. Gantz, who is seen as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's main rival, gave interviews to three major Israeli networks, which were all aired on Tuesday evening.

Gantz told Kan he "can’t have any political discourse" with Arab parties and that Israeli Arab politicians "speak against the State of Israel." Arab political leaders "have made a big mistake," he argued.

>> Read more: Gantz & co. bet on sleaze factor to make them the four horsemen of Netanyahu’s apocalypse ■ Why are the wheels coming off the Benny Gantz election campaign?

"When I'll … form a government, I don't intend to cooperate with those who go against the State of Israel," Gantz told Channel 13 News. He said Israeli Arabs "are equal citizens" who should not "follow those who act against Israel. They don't serve their interests and are irrelevant" to any future government. "The day when their leaders present a positive agenda will be the day we could consider them as partners," Gantz declared.

When asked about his party’s positions on the Middle East peace process, Gantz told Channel 12 News: “We’re not ashamed to use the word ‘peace.’” However, he said “there’s no one to talk to at the moment” on the Palestinian side, adding he would “strengthen settlement” in the West Bank.

Gantz wouldn’t say whether he supports a two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, telling Channel 13 “any channel that would let us” prevent “turning Israel into a bi-national state” would be endorsed by him.

On the Gaza Strip, Gantz told Kan that policy “must be consistent. Three years after Operation Protective Edge, the leadership hasn’t promoted any alternative … We have to regain deterrence.” According to him, “it’s not about toppling Hamas.”

Gantz's interviews came a day after a recording of him emerged in which he suggested he might be willing to form a coalition with Netanyahu, and less than a week after it was revealed that his personal phone was hacked by Iranian operatives.

He stressed that he wouldn’t join Netanyahu’s government, arguing his recording that was leaked is from before the attorney general published the draft indictment in Netanyahu’s corruption cases. Gantz did suggest he would reconsider his position in the “highly unlikely” case that Netanyahu’s hearing with the attorney general, expected after the election, changes charges against the prime minister.

Gantz also slammed Netanyahu’s for his alleged role in another corruption case, in which many of the prime minister’s confidants are suspected, concerning a $2 billion deal to purchase submarines for the Israeli navy. “Netanyahu made a decision to allow the deal to go through without any security consultations,” Gantz told Channel 12, arguing Netanyahu can’t be trusted to make decisions that would benefit the public instead of himself.

Concerning the Iranian hacking to his phone, Gantz said no sensitive material had been obtained from it, and warned against using technological tools for political needs. He also told Channel 13 he finds the timing of the publication suspicious, as he had been made aware of the hack by Shin Bet “six months ago,” and he believes “more people are involved” in the affair, on top of Iranian operatives.

Far-right politican 'will have to re-organize' opinions

When asked about potential coalition partners, Gantz ruled out joining forces with the Union of Right-Wing Parties, which includes Kahanist Otzma Yehudit.

Speaking to Channel 12, Kahol Lavan co-leader said he would consider teaming up with left-wing Meretz and right-wing Hayamin Hehadash, led by ministers Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked. "We'll form a coalition with parties that have the same baselines as we do. We'll team up with anybody who is not against the State of Israel," Gants stated.

When asked about a possible cooperation with Gesher's Orli Levi-Abekasis, who had refused to form a joint slate with him, he replied that he would appoint her as minister if elected as prime minister. "I'd be very happy if she joins me. I'm certain we can lead the country in the direction she’s pushing for," he said of Levi-Abekasis, who is seen as champion for social justice, but polls predict will not make it into the next Knesset.

Speaking about far-right Zehut's Moshe Feiglin, who has been gaining traction in recent polls mailnly due to his views on legalization of marijuana, Gantz said "it is a complicated issue. Extremism is unacceptable and I don't buy his disguise. Feiglin's opinions are very extreme, and he will have to re-organize them.”

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-hamas-prisoners-dispersed-through-israeli-security-wings-after-burning-cells-1.7041196
1.7041196Tue, 19 Mar 2019 19:53:15Josh Breiner וJack KhouryTue, 19 Mar 2019 19:53:15The Israel Prison Service started the transfer of over 100 Hamas prisoners to various security wings in Israeli jails on Tuesday, a day after Palestinian prisoners burned mattresses in Ramon Prison to protest the installation of devices that block cellphone service in the prison.

Imprisoned Hamas leaders were also separated from other prisoners in Ramon Prison, located in southern Israel.

The Hamas prisoners' administration warned that the dispersal of prisoners would heighten tensions in the prisons. The prison service is preparing for clashes that it fears might erupt between the inmates and the prison guards in light of Vaknin's decision.

Qadura Fares, director of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, told Haaretz that "prisoners said they had been transferred to empty cells. The Israel Prison Service's decision will spark serious escalation. I know the prisoners are planning to launch a hunger strike soon."

The IPS imposed punishments and fines on prisoners who set 14 cells on fire in Ramon Prison. The wing that was set ablaze contains 20 cells, housing 88 inmates.

According to a prison official, one of the prisoners who planned the arson is senior Hamas member Abbas Sayed, who is serving 35 life sentences for masterminding the Park Hotel bombing, which killed 29 people as they celebrated the Passover seder in Netanya in 2002.

Hamas announced that Hamas leaders Mohammed Arman and Muad Bilal had been transferred from Ramon Prison.

Over the past few weeks, the IPS has launched a pilot project to install devices that disrupt cellular signal to prevent prisoners from using cellphones to communicate with hostile elements outside the prison. The pilot is scheduled to last several months, and is expected to be implemented in all the wings housing security prisoners.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/egypt/egypt-can-now-block-websites-social-media-accounts-deemed-a-threat-1.7041232
1.7041232Tue, 19 Mar 2019 19:21:14The Associated PressTue, 19 Mar 2019 19:21:14Egypt's top media regulator has put into effect tighter restrictions that allow the state to block websites and even social media accounts with over 5,000 followers if they are deemed a threat to national security.

The move is the latest step by the government of President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi to suppress dissent. In recent years, Egypt has launched an unprecedented crackdown on reporters and the media, imprisoning dozens and occasionally expelling some foreign journalists.

The new regulations, published in the official gazette late Monday, allow the Supreme Media Regulatory Council to block websites and accounts for "fake news," and impose stiff penalties of up to 250,000 Egyptian pounds ($14,400), all without having to obtain a court order.

Prominent Egyptian journalists have called the measures unconstitutional, saying they grant far-reaching powers to authorities to censor the media, in violation of basic press freedoms.

Chief regulator Makram Mohammed Ahmed refused to comment.

Mohamed Abdel-Hafiz, a board member of the journalists' union, said the government is threatening journalists with "vaguely defined national security violations, as well as vaguely defined political, social or religious norms."

The nine-page document gave a broad list of prohibited topics, including "anything inciting violating the law, public morals, racism, intolerance, violence, discrimination between citizens or hatred." Media outlets that continue to publish "offending material" will be fined up to five million Egyptian pounds (around $298,000). The new regulations laid out the same penalty for outlets that publish content without obtaining distribution rights, plus additional compensation.

Critics of the new measures said the rules were stricter than those approved by lawmakers last July, which they said gave the government almost total control over the media.

Journalists' union board member Gamal Abdel-Rahim explained: "Blocking websites is not included in the laws. The constitution itself states that websites and newspapers cannot be shut down without a court order."

He said the regulatory council had also ignored all of the union's notes and comments on the new measures.

Since late 2017, some 500 websites including news outlets and rights groups have been blocked, according to a recent report by an Egyptian watchdog group, the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression.

Authorities say the measures are necessary to prevent instability as Egypt struggles to revive its economy and combat an Islamic insurgency in northern Sinai. Sissi has frequently suggested political rights are less important than the right to food, housing and other necessities, and has rolled back many of the freedoms won by the 2011 uprising against longtime autocratic President Hosni Mubarak.

The government set up a unit last year for tracking alleged rumors, after Sissi claimed without elaborating that the government had identified some 21,000 rumors circulated over a three-month period in 2018.

Egypt remains among the world's worst jailers of journalists, behind China and Turkey, according to the press freedom group the Committee to Protect Journalists.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-strikes-gaza-after-firebombs-hurled-over-border-fence-army-says-1.7041223
1.7041223Tue, 19 Mar 2019 18:59:39Yaniv Kubovich, Jack Khoury וAlmog Ben ZikriTue, 19 Mar 2019 18:59:42The Israeli military said Tuesday that it struck two terror cells in the Gaza Strip that had thrown firebombs from the northern part of the coastal enclave into Israel, days after the Israel Defense Forces attacked some 100 targets in Gaza in response to two rockets that had been fired at central Israel.

Palestinian reports said blasts were heard east of Gaza City.

The Eshkol Regional Council, in southern Israel, said earlier on Tuesday a suspected balloon had been identified in a forest near the Gaza border. However, security officials concluded that it posed no danger, as no explosives were attached to it.

In February, the first incendiary balloon since November was launched from the Gaza Strip, a few days after Hamas re-approved the tactic due to stalled talks with Israel. It caused a small fire in the Kissufim Forest near the border, which was put out quickly.

The Israeli military struck Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions in early March after more incendiary balloons were launched into Israel.

The Israeli army attacked in Gaza Thursday overnight in response to two rockets fired at Tel Aviv from the Strip the evening before, a first since the 2014 war. According to a preliminary army assessment, the rockets were fired at Tel Aviv by mistake during maintenance work.

The flare-up followed weeks of tensions, with the most recent exchange until then took place Saturday night when a projectile was launched at Israel. In response, the Israeli army carried out several airstrikes in the Strip, targeting several Hamas posts.

]]>https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/sarah-silverman-and-ilhan-omar-are-in-a-two-state-solution-lady-gang-now-1.7041133
1.7041133Tue, 19 Mar 2019 18:57:40The Forward וJenny SingerTue, 19 Mar 2019 18:57:40Politics aside, there are exactly three people in the world who are really good at Twitter: President Donald Trump, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Weird Al Yankovic.

The rest of us pretty much have to stick to the painstaking process of thinking through and then carefully fleshing out our ideas. After weeks of controversy, convolution, and contrition from Representative Ilhan Omar over her tweets about Israel, the freshman congresswoman finally did what she probably should have done all along — released an op-ed fully explaining her opinions about the relationship of the United States and Israel.

>> Gideon Levy: Keep it up, Ilhan Omar

In a piece published in the Washington Post over the weekend, Omar explained that in seeking to have an “honest conversation about U.S. foreign policy, militarism and our role in the world,” she applies her personal experience as a child refugee of war in Somalia.

Given that background, which is singular in the United States Congress, she says she believes in U.S. foreign policy that “truly makes military action a last resort.” When that philosophy applies to Israel, she says, it means remembering that Israel is “the Jewish people’s historical homeland [as well as] the historical homeland of Palestinians.”

“I support a two-state solution, with internationally recognized borders, which allows for both Israelis and Palestinians to have their own sanctuaries and self-determination,” Omar wrote. This represents a major shift in tone for the Minnesota representative, whose comments have been interpreted by many as anti-Israel.

Jewish comedian-turned-beating-heart-of-the-liberal-movement Sarah Silverman signed off on Omar’s message. “I am so down with this,” she wrote on Twitter, in support of the op-ed. “Thank you [Ilhan Omar] for this piece, let’s work toward a two-state solution and let the U.S. be a force for peace and freedom and justice for all.”

Replied Omar, “Thank you, Sarah! I’m with you!”

Silverman, whose sister is noted Israeli Reform rabbi and activist Susan Silverman, has been open about her connection to Israel, as well as her staunch support for liberal causes. She has explicitly supported the two-state solution in the past.

Silverman thanked Omar on Twitter for her apology for her infamous “AIPAC tweets” and her words about the reality of anti-Semitism. Without directly defending Omar during the tweet controversy, she did share a video featuring comments by writer Thomas Friedman, who explained the financial power of AIPAC.

She also tweeted an article by writer David Rothkop, highlighting a quote from Rothkopf’s article — “We must be careful that we do not allow the justifiable aspects of the critique against Rep. Omar to lead to a reflexive position where we silence active criticism of the Israeli government, or the worst actions of the State of Israel.”

Two strong women, united again to create peace and equality! All’s well that ends well, unless you don’t like Ilhan Omar, Sarah Silverman, peace, or equality. A Sarah Silverman music video featuring new congresswomen next, please.

For more stories, go to www.forward.com. Sign up for the Forward’s daily newsletter at http://forward.com/newsletter/signup/